Hicham El Guerrouj- made a salary of $4,000,000 a year

Ermm.. did you know that El G retired nearly 20 years ago?

There was that kind of money in track back then, but the public got sick of watching doped up Africans dominate who wouldn't even be getting through the rounds without their EPO.

Elijah Manangoi in an interview recently stated that he missed out on $500K earnings because of his two year suspension.

kenyans.co.ke

How 29-Yr-Old Kenyan Athlete Missed Out on Ksh60 Million Deal

@Kenyans

The ban led to Elijah Manangoi missing out on international events such as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Diamond League seasons

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I was reading some old El G threads from 03/04 and people were saying that he got a $30K appearance fee every time he raced a DL 1,500m.

Probably more IMO. When EL G competed it was the best time to watch T&F. Everyone was doped up on EPO since it was undetectable and the races were great.

around 80/100k at his prime

I think Jakob is also on 4 000 000 a year and this can even go up with other sponsors and bonus.

Well I don't know if the races were great - the timetrials where El G would stomp the field by 25-30m every race were okay for a while I guess.

In 2020 J.I had a taxable income at 1.7 million Nok (168 882 USD). These things are out in the open in Norway. We dont know for 2021 yet, other than him owning 25% of a company (with his brothers and parents) that made 566 254 USD in revenue. In 2022 he created a company, probably to store some of his earnings, I would say they probably increased a lot.

Income not revenue for the company.

Gjert said that they signed a new deal for Jakob last year at the Pre Classic that runs through 2032. The first deal was signed when Jakob was 17, so not surprising 2020 is much lower.

newsinenglish.no

Ingebrigtsen cashing in

Nina

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This article says experts think he made about $1.5M in 2021 alone and thats before the new contract. I would not be surprised if he is on $4M now, he is a megastar in Norway.

Those are all pretty made up numbers but I would be shocked to learn he was making around that much. I bet he had some serious endorsement dollars as the best athlete in his country. He was big enough to get main stream endorsements rather than just shoe deals..

There is money in track. Just need to be like the top 5 or so in the world . And it helps to come from a developed country....

And yet people wonder why our stars continue to dope...

Yeah, that's why the stadiums were starting to empty.

Another thing to consider is that while money in athletics has actually gone down (even before you consider inflation) since the 90's, in nearly every other major sport it's absolutely sky-rocketed.

El G was also a personal pet project of the King of Morocco, of whom money was no object. He was likely earning $4 million a year, but not in appearance fees.

I remember a couple of years ago reading about some minor UFC fighter from Morocco. The King of Morocco had paid for him to have his own private gym built.

Both El G and Aouita had mansions awarded to them.

Not sure about the exact salary, but yes El G was making tons of money back in the 90’s but not surprised He was an absolute BEAST so dominant in the 1500m I believe he only lost few races in his life and his winning times were 3:30 or faster in most of his races. How often we see sub 3:30 now? Well till recently with the help of super shoes here and there.

This seems the most likely reason El G would make so much money. He was state-sponsored in every way. Now you see Moroccan athletes are going to the NCAA due to lack of much financial backing and El Bakkali is probably the only prominent guy left.

Have to imagine both Jakob and Kipchoge are now more valuable to Nike than El G ever was, given their social media footprint and Q rating.

El G was juiced to the max. He was on such high doses of HGH that he needed a dentist assigned to the Moroccan national team to deal with the side effects.

We need to start calling him El HGH.

I think the social media influencer score is more important these days than the Q, both the familiarity rating and the actual + Q. For USA track athletes only Syd cracks the top 50 in the United States among all athletes, but not sure how she does world-wide. Kipchoge and Jakob must be up there across the globe? Anybody else? Maybe SAFP?

Yeah it's sad to have to think this and certainly every wave of next great talent that comes through and goes highlights the obvious.

We laud Jakob as one of the best talents we have ever seen and he is - but he is still some margin off El Guerrojou. I expect by the end of his career he will have PRs in the 3.27.2, 3.44.8, 7.25.6, range but that is still a considerable margin behind Hichem. I have a hard time believing El Guerrojou is that much better than Jakob and it's not just the ceiling performances it's the volume of quality that's the real difference. From 97-99 he ran under 3.30 10 times and in 1998 did it 5 times consecutively and averaged 3.27.9 for those 5 races. Insanity. In an era where EPO/CERA/HGH and designer drugs were at an all time high, it's really not likely he did this "unassisted"

You think? But have no clue whatsoever? Seriously doubt he get more than 1 mill dollar from Nike a year. If he win double this summer… maybe…