Fans outraged over low prize money at World Athletics Continental Tour despite star power of Letsile Tebogo and other elite athletes

Letsile Tebogo recently competed at the Botswana Golden Grand Prix, which is a part of the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold. The Olympic gold medalist made his season debut in the 200m and breezed through the line-up to win the gold medal with a performance of 20.23 in front of a home crowd.

The World Athletics Continental Tour Gold consists of independent track and field events worldwide featuring some of the best athletes in the world. Some of the highly popular track meets that are a part of the World Athletics Continental Tour include the USATF Los Angeles Grand Prix, which witnessed appearances from Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Rai Benjamin, Letsile Tebogo, and Michael Norman, among others.

Amid great performances on the track, one aspect of the track meet enraged fans—the prize money offered to the winners was extremely low as compared to other sports, with the gold medalist taking home $5000, the silver medalist winning $3000, and the bronze medalist taking home $2000. Prize money was offered to the top eight finishers, with the 8th finisher taking home $800.

Fans expressed their frustration over the payout and shared how it is difficult for athletes to sustain themselves, considering the overhead costs that they have to incur if they don't have sponsors.

"That doesn't include appearance fees, of course... but only the top athletes can command significant appearance fees. I can't imagine flying 10,000 miles round trip for a meet, and walking away with just $600. This is crazy," wrote a fan.

"Why isn’t there money in athletics?" another fan chimed in.

"5k for first place lmao does that even cover travel and s**t 🤣" tweeted another fan.

Here are some more fan reactions:

" Thank you @GrandSlamTrack for changing the game because what is this?" wrote a fan.

"Grand slam taking over whenever they get marketing right lol 5,000 for first place after months of training is awful man," another fan chimed in.

"After Grand Slam, that prize pool looking a little (read: a LOT) pathetic" tweeted another fan.

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Letsile Tebogo shares how an Olympic medal transformed his life

Letsile Tebogo at the Maurie Plant Meet Press Conference - Source: Getty

Letsile Tebogo spoke about the impact of winning an Olympic gold medal in an interview with AFP. The 21-year-old revealed how the remarkable victory opened up many doors for him as well as motivated a lot of young athletes in the African subcontinent to take up the sport.

Moreover, he hoped for more money to be invested in building facilities as well as nurturing upcoming athletes.

“I believe there’s true potential in Africa, just that we don’t have as many resources as other countries. So if we have the resources, then Africa could be one of the deadliest continents,” he said.

Furthermore, he urged people to be unbound by limits and push themselves out of their comfort zone to strive for greatness.