LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AFP)—The International Olympic Committee, which has been under growing pressure to introduce prize money to the Olympics, on Wednesday announced it was setting up a grant for every athlete who takes part in the Games.

“Every athlete at the Olympic Games will be eligible for a new $10,000 (8,800 euros) ‘Fit for the Future Olympian Grant’,” said the IOC on its website, adding that the total fund would be worth $140mn for each four-year Olympic cycle.

“All Olympians, no matter where they’re from doesn’t matter where they finish,” would be entitled to the grant, said the chair of the Athletes’ Commission Pau Gasol, during a press conference at the IOC Session in Lausanne.

Gasol, a former Spanish basketball star, added that the payment would be “acknowledging the importance and relevance of being an Olympian, participating and representing your sport and to your country in the Games.”

“It’s not prize money,” he stressed.

The IOC said athletes who competed at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games this year would be eligible to apply once the application process had been set up.

While the Olympics have long since dropped the requirement that athletes are amateurs, the IOC has been reluctant to pay competitors.

IOC President Kirsty Coventry has consistently opposed such a suggestion.

On Wednesday, she said that the money for the grants would not cut into the shares of IOC revenue that go to National Olympic Committees or internationals sports federations.

Coventry’s opposition to prize money has drawn a hostile response from some former athletes.

South African Roland Schoeman, like Coventry a former swimmer, launched a petition calling for the resignation of the president and the entire executive board.

“The IOC generates billions. That value comes from the athletes. It is time to demand accountability,” he wrote.

World Athletics broke with tradition and introduced prize money at the 2024 Paris Games — each gold medal winner in the 48 track and field events receiving $50,000 — relay runners sharing the prize pot.

“Does this undermine the amateur ethic?” said World Athletics president Sebastian Coe at the time of the announcement.

“Well, I’m probably the last generation to have been on the 75p meal voucher and a second-class rail ticket when competing for my own country.

“We’re now operating in a completely different planet from when I was competing, so it is very important that the sport recognises that change in landscape.”