Record prize fund for 2028 European Championships

The European Athletics Championships in 2028 will offer a record prize fund worth about £3m when they are staged in Silesia, Poland.

Prize money will be awarded to athletes finishing in the top eight across all 50 events.

Gold medal winners will earn 30,000 euros (£25,720), while silver and bronze medallists will receive 15,000 euros (£12,860) and 10,000 euros (£8,573) respectively.

Athletes finishing fourth to eighth across the 50 disciplines will receive awards of 5,000, 4,000, 3,000, 2,000 and 1,000 euros respectively.

European Athletics has restructured the way in which prize money is awarded, ensuring athletes finishing in the top eight in every discipline receive financial recognition.

The prize fund on offer at the last championships, held in Birmingham in August of this year, did not involve a standard payout for every medal position.

Instead, a total pot of 500,000 euros (£428,000) was split equally between the top 10 performances across 10 categories – five for men and five for women – determined by the World Athletics scoring tables.

Great Britain and Northern Ireland won 19 medals in Birmingham, including nine golds.

But none of those gold medal performances earned one of the 50,000 euro ‘Gold Crown’ bonuses awarded by the organisers.

The significant increase in money for the European Championships reflects how elite athletes’ on-track earning potential is growing.

World Athletics recently provided what it described as “the richest prize pot in the history of the sport”, with $10m (£7.4m) put up for its new three-day Ultimate Championship event in Budapest.

Each individual event winner received $150,000 (£110,000).

With athletes carefully planning their seasons, championships may need to offer substantial incentives to ensure strong fields.

There will be another Ultimate Championship in 2028, plus the Los Angeles Olympics and a Diamond League season.

The European Championships will take place in early June, starting six weeks before the Olympics get under way.

European Athletics said its revised structure for 2028 ensures every discipline is treated equally and there will now be “due recognition” given not only to medal winners but to all athletes reaching the top eight.

The governing body’s chief executive, Christian Milz, said the decision “demonstrates our commitment” to competitors who are “at the heart of our sport”.

“We are seeing European athletes produce extraordinary performances and capture the imagination of audiences around the world,” he said.

“It is important that we continue to find meaningful ways to recognise and support them, and this record prize fund is a significant step in that direction.”