Josh Kerr has slammed athletics’ lack of funding, calling the $40,000 (£31,500) prize money offered to World Athletics Indoor Championships gold medalists “insane” compared with other sports and urging new Investment – whether from Saudi Arabia or elsewhere.
The 26-year-old, who won the 3000m world indoor title with a stunning performance on Saturday, also made clear his support for Michael Johnson’s recently announced plans to establish a new US-funded world championship in 2025. Athletic Union. Johnson is a four-time track and field athlete. The former Olympic gold medalist is said to have raised millions in an attempt to revolutionize the sport with a TV-friendly team format and last week joined forces with global sports marketing firm Winners Alliance.
“There aren’t a lot of details, but he was loud on set and wanted to cause some commotion, and that sounded great to me,” Cole said. “From an athlete’s perspective, this will give us options, and options are what we seek to make a living and show our performance. As long as it’s a clean sport, I’m good at it.”
Cole, who also called on World Athletics to do more to boost event prize money, won $40,000 for his victory in Glasgow, with the silver medalist receiving $20,000 and the bronze medalist $10,000. “Compared to other sports, it seems crazy,” he said. “We need to bring some validity to these tournaments.”
“We’re very fortunate to have guys like Noah Lyles, Grant Holloway, Femke Bol; great athletes that come out here and do their jobs. ,” he added. “But these numbers are lower than appearance fees for athletes at the same level today. We have to find ways to get athletes to compete more and have more head-to-head competition. We need competition, we need to have head-to-head competition, and to do that The way to do that is to pay athletes a lot of money to compete in a series of events.”
When asked what he thought of the potential for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to add athletics to its expanding sports portfolio and the possibility of running on Saudi Arabian soil, Kerr did not rule it out. possibility. “We’ve been very careful with some of LIV Golf’s products,” he said. “But if people want to invest in the sport, then I think it’s necessary.
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“I do think World Athletics is doing everything it can to attract investor interest and try to attract more eyeballs, but that’s what 2024 is about. We have another Olympics to try to boost viewership and attract sponsorship , I think it’s absolutely necessary.”
