IOC President Kirsty Coventry: “I Don’t Believe in Paying Athletes”

International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry, a former Olympic Gold-Medal swimmer from Zimbabwe, has publicly expressed her disapproval of paying Olympic athletes.

In an interview with Sport Nation NZ, Coventry was upfront about her belief in not paying athletes, but rather wants to find more ways to “directly impact athletes”.

“I don’t believe in paying athletes. I come from a small country, I came from a sport that doesn’t necessarily pay athletes very well, and I still don’t think we should be paying athletes at the Olympic Games.” Coventry told Sport Nation NZ. “Now I do think we should find more ways to directly impact athletes.. to find ways to directly help them on their journey to becoming Olympians, while they are Olympians, and as they are finding ways into their new career transition.”

In that same interview, Coventry responded to a question regarding Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rights used by Olympic athletes, and, in response, mentioned that what athletes don’t get monetarily, they get in “beautiful venues, beautiful villages,” and a “beautiful experience.”

“All of that comes from the money we raise,” Coventry said. “What I challenge athletes, national federations who are asking for more money… the solidarity model is very particular. Now if the entire movement wants us to change, we would have not as many countries, not as many sports, we’d be particular on what that would look like. And I don’t think that the Olympic Games, and I don’t think the Olympic movement thinks that’s the Olympic Games.”

While she did not deny the financial struggles athletes face, she focused more on supporting and prioritizing a system of support through Olympic committees and solidarity programs, which Coventry drew a comparison to as a former solidarity scholarship holder herself.

Throughout the interview, Coventry pushed to keep the current solidarity model in place, rather than directly paying athletes, while still maintaining its support.

According to a report from Inside the Games, the IOC’s model is based on revenue redistribution to the Olympic movement, organizing committees, federations, national committees, and development programs. Olympic Solidarity is a system that aids national Olympic committees with various athlete development programs.

That same report also details how World Athletics paid $50,000 to Olympic gold medalists at the Paris Olympics in 2024, with that same amount being distributed among winning relay teams.

Within the sport, we have seen a variety of athletes open up about the lack of financial support, one of which being Hunter Armstrong, who has represented the United States at two Olympic Games, and won several medals, deciding to join the Enhanced Games, where he won $375,000, and did so without the use of enhancements, with hopes to continue training for a 3rd Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.

Similar to Armstrong is fellow American Olympian Cody Miller, who has also been using his social media as a platform for potential revenue, posting on his YouTube channel, which currently has 193,000 subscribers. He, too, made the decision to join the Enhanced Games, where he won two events and secured half a million dollars in winnings, the largest payday of his swimming career.