European Athletics Championships 2024: Exploring performance bonuses distribution & how much top athletes including Femke Bol will earn in Rome

The 2024 European Athletics Championships, which began on June 7 in Rome, will conclude on June 12. Many athletes who participated in the continental championships in Rome displayed outstanding performances. While some achieved meeting and national records, others excelled in their respective events with personal bests.

For the first time in the history of the European Athletics Championships, performance bonuses will be awarded to the best 10 performers in the event, with an overall pool of €500,000 being accessible to them as approved by the European Athletics Council.

The ten performers will earn cash prizes as the performance bonuses will be evenly split as five male and five female athletes will collect prizes worth €50,000 each. The performance bonuses will cover five event areas for each gender.

The segregation of the event areas is as follows:

1. Sprints & Hurdles (100m, 200m, 400m, 100m hurdles, 400m hurdles)
2. Middle & Long Distance (800m, 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m, 3000m steeplechase)
3. Throws (Shot Put, Discus Throw, Hammer Throw, Javelin Throw)
4. Jumps (High Jump, Pole Vault, Long Jump, Triple Jump)
5. Road, Combined Events & Relays (Half Marathon, 20km Race Walk, Decathlon/ Heptathlon).

The athlete in each event area with the highest score in their respective final at the European Athletics Championships 2024, as decided by the World Athletics scoring tables, will be given €50,000. It is worth noting that winning the gold medal alone won't fetch the athlete a performance bonus.

Athletes who have achieved performance bonuses so far at the 2024 European Athletics Championships

Karsten Warholm of Team Norway celebrates winning the gold medal in the Men's 400m Hurdle Final on day five of the 26th European Athletics Championships - Rome 2024 at Stadio Olimpico on June 11, 2024 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Mattia Ozbot/Getty Images for European Athletics)

Although the final day of the European Athletics Championships hasn't arrived yet, Femke Bol and Karsten Warholm have emerged as the best performers in the Sprint & Hurdles category as both the athletes established Championship records in the women’s and men’s 400m hurdles events and achieved more points than the athletes in other events of their category.

In the women’s throws category, Sandra Perković Elkasević topped the event area by throwing a 67.04m mark in the final of the discus throw as she acquired 1201 points for her phenomenal performance.

The remaining categories Gold crown winners in the men’s (Middle & Long Distance, Throws, Jumps, and Road, Combined Events & Relays) and women’s (Middle & Long Distance, Jumps, Road, Combined Events & Relays) will be announced after the end of men’s pole vault, javelin throw, 1500m, 10,000m, 4x400m relay, 4x100m relay, and women’s 800m, long jump, 4x100m, and 4x400m relay events finals scheduled on June 12.