Good news: Olympic Trials Prize Money is $300k per sex. Bad news this is the lowest amount ever in inflation adjusted $ for men

Wish I got paid $300k per sex

I'm surprised there's not a non-binary division.

This deeply affects me personally

You went full retard, never go full retard

Once upon a time the prize money was $0. This is not the lowest ever.

This year there is $350 max travel expense for everyone who qualified. But there are far fewer athletes in Orlando than Atlanta, mostly due to the change to the women's standard. Similar number of men qualified with the minute reduction.

Prize money has been largely stagnant since around 2010. It seems roughly 2000-2010 would have been the best time to be an American professional runner because the US was not great in terms of depth, only a couple top guys and a massive drop off. And it seemed like it was super easy to get a contract in that time frame. Some examples off the top of my head is LA marathon, used to be something like $100k for the win, now it's around $5k or $10k. Chicago used to be over $100k a decade ago, now it's less than that even before factoring in inflation. Rock 'N Roll series races used to have quite a bit of prize money, I believe they have zero dollars now. Tons of local races were doing $500 or $600 prize money 25 years ago, and those same races are still doing $500 or $600 prize money even though with inflation it should be approaching $1000. You used to have guys running 2:18 marathons on the verge of a contract. Now you have guys running 2:10, even some rare instances of 2:09 with nothing.

Not sure why you keep obsessing about this. The athletes are running this race to try to achieve their dream of going to the Olympics, not for money.

…what?

Do you think the left would tolerate reducing women’s prize money while increasing men’s? Of course not. The left condones state sanctioned discrimination against men, especially straight white or Asian men.

Id still be broke

What are you talking about? Did you look at the prize money?

Nice culture and legacy you've built here, jobros.

That would mean a lot of Let's Run posters would be destitute having made no money in years. Some would never know what getting paid means.

Excellent perspective. Can we also plot this against USATF CEO salary by year? Absurd.

You seem to equate equal treatment with discrimination.

USATF doesn't have to have big prize money because the athletes have no choice but to run the race to make the OGs. Also, the athletes that make the games will get sponsor bonuses and may also pick up new sponsors. So, why would sponsors put up big dollars when they are already obligated to give their athletes big dollars if they make the games?

What the trials prize money should really be doing is acting as a marathon development fund. If you are going to put more money into the prize purse, make the prize curve less steep and extend prize money out beyond the top 10. The top three are going to get paid well by their sponsors and have opportunities to get more sponsors. But the runners who end up in 3-20 are going to have a good shot at the next trials and moving up into bigger races with higher placing. Putting some real money in their pockets so they can have the resources to stay dedicated to the sport is something that the trials should be all about.

rnr san diego used to be 25k for the winner in the early 2000s . Back then it was the rock n roll marathon. There was a half marathon in va beach that paid like 15k to the winner. The former race pays 0 today and the latter doesn't exist anymore. Both races paid big appearance fees as well.

Now for a contract it isn't just the times - its the social media. A fast guy who doesn't post on instagram frequently will never get a contract. Pro athletes have to be advertisers too. It used to be the company would use them in promotional material, now the athletes have to develop the promotinal material.

Bidenomics has negatively impacted everyone, especially lower income individuals. A dollar just isn't worth nearly what it was 3 short years ago. Nobody is immune to this crap economy, not even runners.