World Marathon Majors SLASHES series prize money by 69% effective immediately, costing Eliud Kipchoge 200k and we aren't happy

Wow what a joke. Total bush league move to cut the prize money mid-series. Its one thing to reduce during the next cycle, another entirely to slash after the races have already been run. Hope Kipchoge gives them the middle finger and goes to Valencia or somewhere else next year.

Wheelchairs belong in bike races, not foot races. Running shoes don't have wheels.

This is the end. World Majors will be replaced by Marathon Project type races.

This is outrageous! BroJos: please follow the example of the LIV Tour. Get some Saudis to back your own rival league/ race series that pays athletes what they’re worth. Make it happen!!

How is this not a breach of contract? I would think the athletes sign on to a contract that should stipulate what the prize money is. Unless WMM contracts say “you’ll be awarded prize money as determined by us at some undisclosed time in the future”.

Sorry to be that guy but what makes you think they are entitled to any more money than what they are given?

I don't know what's worse, that they're using the wheelchair equity rationale as a lame excuse for cost-cutting or if they actually believe that this represents progress. I guess both could be true.

I support disabled people and their athletic goals, and understand how footraces are a good venue for them to also share. But to cut the runner prize for parity, instead or raising the wheelchair prize, is just penny pinching with a PR spin.

This change reminds me of people who foolishly think WNBA players should be paid the same as NBA players. The pay is based on how much money they generate. What percentage of people tuning in to WMM broadcasts do so to watch the wheelchair racers, 1%?

I feel like the whole WMM jackpot thing has run it’s course. Has it done much to increase competition or interest in the race series? I say just put that towards more individual race prize money or building better fields instead. As a circuit it king of makes more sense for the wheelchair athletes anyway, as they can do way more of the races.

also, there was that whole Kimetto / Mutai collision thing a few years back.

While the $500K prize was exciting at first a decade ago, there are better uses for those funds IMO. Did they really slash this at the last minute? If they initially had announced a different structure, that would be annoying. I agree that hiding behind the equity angle is a crass move and not a great look for the organization.

The not well thought out out virtue signaling really bothers me. Trying to stage 4 sporting events at once is a huge mistake, particularly when the fan base for two of those sports doesn't exist.

But let me make a point that I haven't seen pointed out anywhere.

Have the WMMs considered that it could easily be argued that their move to slash the series prize $$ for runners but raise it for wheelchair racers is racist and a sign of white / Western privilege?

Perhaps they should since they are so worried about virtue signaling . It's a direct weatlh transfer from black athletes to white athletes.

The reality is wheelchair racing is almost 100% dominated by rich, white majority countries and running is dominated by poor, black majority countries.

How many people in wheelchairs in Kenya can afford a $25,000 chair?

At the most recent Paralympics, guess how many of the wheelchair marathon participants were black? Answer: Zero men. 1 woman.

It would be great to see the African athletes stand up for themselves and raise this as an issue and see how the WMMs respond.

Poor Kip. With this pay cut, how is he going to be able to afford his, um, “expenses”?

To the person who asked why their post was deleted, I thought it was quite clever but was afraid your advanced vocabularly would derail the thread. Your post actually inspired me to write my post as in a weird way it made me think of race.

Autocorrect- couple of mistakes, but most importantly, collision = collusion

But, didn't you literally write the following:
"But let me make a point that I haven't seen pointed out anywhere."

The LAST thing the big marathons need is elite runners. The big 'races' aren't really races at all, but are more 'festival' in nature anymore. Let's say you have a field of 10K-30K. How many of those runners will know, see or care about a guy at the front running 2:02 versus 2:20? The answer is NONE OF THEM. NOBODY CARES. Would there be fewer runners if truly elite runners aren't at the front? NO. Why give so much money away that in no way actually supports the races?

Running needs to be more like road cycling, in which you have a set of UCI elite tours in Europe that draw the best riders and teams in the world to a small number of high-profile stage races. Those teams support development of elite cycling. Then, at least in the US, there is amateur racing in a category system where aspiring warriors can clang it out. Then, there are cycling events, typically centuries and double centuries, that draw huge numbers of riders and provide support, but there is no timing, no 'racing', they are 'events', or even 'festivals', but not races. Centuries are great and I don't understand why running events aren't reimagined to be more like that.

American running is simply not dependent on elites in any way. As long as running events can draw the FOMO Insta crowd and create the 'festival' atmosphere, they'll be just fine.