‘Against the spirit’ – Olympics rule change for Paris 2024 leaves cycling chief furious
World Athletics' decision to award prize money to gold medallists has been blasted by the head of cycling ahead of the Olympics this summer.
This year will see prize money awarded to gold medallists for the first time in Olympics history when the competition gets underway in Paris.
It comes after World Athletics made the decision to become the first federation to do so at an edition of the Games.
Gold medallists will earn $50,000 (£39,400) at athletics events while the next Games at Los Angeles 2028, the scheme will be expanded to all medallists.
But Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) president David Lappartient has hit out at the decision and insisted it goes against the spirit of the Games.
"The Olympic spirit is to share revenues and have more athletes compete worldwide," the UCI chief said.
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"Not only [to] put all the money on the top athletes but spread the money.
"If we concentrate money on top athletes, a lot of opportunities will disappear for athletes all over the world.
"We really believe that this is not the Olympic spirit. The proposal was not discussed."
As a traditionally amateur sports event, the International Olympic Committee has not awarded prize money.
It has instead distributed funding through international federations (IF) and national Olympic committees (NOC), who are then free to give money to successful athletes if they wish.
Such a practice does not go ahead in the United Kingdom while former athletes praised the decision when it was announced by World Athletics president Lord Sebastian Coe.
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Coe was asked if it went against the spirit of the Olympics at the time, to which he replied: "I don't see that making life a little easier for the athletes, allowing them maybe to stay on in the sport a little bit longer, to give them the financial independence to train, and maybe in a more sophisticated way is anything other than sitting behind good firm Olympic principles."
World Athletics revealed that a pot of $2.5m (£1.9m) will be made available to winning medallists at this year's Olympic Games.
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There are 48 athletics events set to go ahead in Paris this summer while the winning relay team will share the funds between them.
The Paralympics will not see prize money awarded to gold medallists as the competition is governed by the World Para Athletics.