“We don’t even get 10k for winning fastest man of the US” - Noah Lyles on winners' purse at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials

American sprint sensation Noah Lyles was stunned after learning the prize distribution structure for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Team Trials 2024, scheduled on February 3, 2024, in Orlando.

The U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials 2024 is the biggest marathon running competition for the marathoners in the U.S. this year. To earn a berth in the Paris 2024, a marathoner has to ensure that they finish in the top three of the 2024 trials. If they fail to make it to the top three, their road to the Olympics will end.

Recently, Citius Mag, a digital platform that produces track and field news, analysis, videos, newsletters, and podcasts, shared the total prize purse of the event. It is set at $600,000, for both men and women. The post by Citius Mag on their X (formerly Twitter) handle also included the prize money distribution for each athlete.

All the athletes from first to tenth positions will receive cash prizes issued by USATF. The winner, runner-up, and third-placed athlete will earn $80,000, $65,000, and $55,000, respectively. However, the triple world champion Noah Lyles didn't take the news well and responded:

“YO wait what!?!?! We don’t even get 10k for winning fastest man of the US.”

Noah Lyles mentioned that even the fastest man in the U.S. (100m) doesn't earn 10K for clinching the title. Last year, at the 2023 Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships, the top seven finishers bagged cash prizes, including the winner earning $8,000.

The USATF provided $10,000 to its individual winners who participated in the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials. The second and third-placed athletes received $8,000, and $6,000, respectively. The fourth, fifth, and sixth-placed athletes, received $4,000, $3,000, and $2,000. Meanwhile, the seventh and eighth finishers earned $1,000 each from the USATF.

The 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials (excluding marathon events) offered a total purse of $1.4 million to its athletes, which included $35,000 in each discipline.

Notably, the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) of the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials 2024 will be paying the athletes, and not the USATF, according to Runner's World.

Noah Lyles named USATF Athlete of the Year for 2023

Noah Lyles won the Men's 200m Final at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 2023 in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images for World Athletics)

Noah Lyles was announced the USATF Athlete of the Year In November 2023 for his outstanding performance in 2023. This is the third time Lyles was honored with the Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year award. He consequently became the second man after Michael Johnson to win this award thrice.

Lyles achieved a historic treble at the World Athletics Championships 2023, winning the 100m, 200m, and 4X100m events. With this, he became only the first male sprinter since Usain Bolt in 2015 to be able to replicate this feat.