Distribution of the Olympic funds: "The athletes benefit from the IOC's solidarity model"

Should the International Olympic Committee (IOC) let the athletes share in the proceeds of the Olympic Games?

The demand, last made at this point by Maximilian Klein from Athleten Deutschland, is fundamentally more than plausible.

It goes without saying: the athletes are the focus of the Olympic movement.

The games are first and foremost their games.

They are the main actors and the main beneficiaries - financially too.

Hosting the Olympic Games, by far the largest event in the world, costs money.

It is not only required for its implementation every two years, but also and especially for continuously building, maintaining and developing global sports structures on all continents - and especially in those sports that cannot shoulder this task alone.

That is why the IOC distributes 90 percent of its total revenue to sport around the world, not on a commercial basis, but in a spirit of inclusion and solidarity.

3.4 billion from 2013 to 2016

Solidarity is the foundation and core concern of the Olympic Movement, including its financial structure. It ensures the long-term development of the Olympic - and by the way also the Paralympic - athletes and of the sport from the base to the top of the performance pyramid. In the years of the 2013 to 2016 Olympics, around 3.4 billion euros were distributed. That is the equivalent of around 3 million euros per day.

The organizers of the games in Sochi and Rio de Janeiro alone were supported with almost 2.5 billion US dollars. The 40 Olympic sports and their international associations received around US $ 740 million, with the same amount going to the 206 National Olympic Committees (NOC), through which the IOC pays grants for Olympic teams and grants for individual athletes. In addition, financial contributions are made to numerous other sports organizations and to the global anti-doping fight. The money will be used to offer the athletes the best possible conditions and to cover costs that would otherwise have to be shared among them.

In a number of countries, the NOK and national sports federations rely almost exclusively on the support of the IOC. A figure from Tokyo shows how difficult the situation is in some places: The IOC, the World Association of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI) and some of the world's leading manufacturers of sporting goods helped more than 500 athletes from NOK 73 to get adequate equipment for the Games. Without this help, the athletes would hardly have been able to take part in their competitions, because in many places there is no state funding for sports like in Germany in the three-digit million range and a strong German Sports Aid Foundation.

Nevertheless, German athletes also benefit extensively from the income of the IOC.

In the current four-year Olympics, the German Olympic Sports Confederation will receive a total of around 30 million euros from the IOC and through income from the marketing rights granted by the IOC for participation in the summer and winter games.

The subsidies for Team Germany's posting costs to Tokyo alone amount to up to 1.5 million US dollars, which are used to cover costs that arise from participating in the Olympics.

Difference to professional leagues

Athletes compete in the Olympic Games as part of a team: that of their NOK.

These teams participate in the economic success of the games and decide how they use this money.

The same applies to the international sports federations that finance their work and their non-Olympic competition series from this money.