Peaty’s cash for medals hopes are in recession

CHELTENHAM’S Gold Cup is one of the grand events in the sporting calendar. It will no doubt find a sponsor before the 2022 edition on March 18. That it is still looking, however, with little more than two months to go, is a sign of a recession that has barely begun. Yet when Adam Peaty stood before MPs last year and cited the £551,000 athletes in Singapore receive for gold medals, he urged the Government to offer similar incentives. ‘If you’ve won a gold medal for your country, you got us to a final, here’s a little bit of a thank you,’ he said. Do you know how much Singapore would have paid out to their athletes since 1948 had they offered £551,000 per gold? £551,000. That bonus would have gone exclusively to Joseph Schooling in 2016, for winning the men’s 100 metres butterfly.

By comparison, if Great Britain paid for gold over the same period, this country would be out £95.3million; £55.1m of it since 2008. Tokyo 2020 would have cost £12.1m. And that’s before we include finals, as Peaty did. There were also 21 silvers and 22 bronze in Tokyo, not including those who made finals, but not the podium. We cannot keep pretending we have money for everything; certainly not for individuals to become millionaires out of modern pentathlon or BMX. Olympic athletes work very hard. They have the gratitude of the nation. They also have sponsors, prize money, a government wage and commercial cachet. Ideally, bonuses too. But there is a recession looming and surviving it will depend on the correct priorities. We can’t be in hock to skateboarding.