Dame Denise Lewis, gained gold within the heptathlon on the 2000 Sydney Olympics for Nice Britain, stated the announcement is “actually optimistic”, however added athletics “has not been a wealthy sport”.
“That is nothing to do with ‘the Olympics is meant to be about valour, about honour and illustration of your nation’, that is completely a gesture from World Athletics to its athletes,” Lewis instructed BBC 5 Dwell Drive.
“The Olympics earns billions – as we all know, for lots of people, however the athletes do not all the time get that in monitor and discipline.”
Lewis, who additionally took heptathlon bronze on the Atlanta Video games in 1996, stated prize cash wouldn’t devalue the achievement of reaching an Olympics, relatively it might provide athletes a attainable incentive to proceed competing.
“And to simply give them a little bit little bit of help going ahead,” she added.
Rutherford, who was additionally an Olympic bronze medallist in Rio in 2016, stated he hopes different sports activities can undertake the identical method as World Athletics.
“Athletes from world wide sacrifice a lot to attain essentially the most troublesome accolade in sport, turning into Olympic champion – standing on the prime of the rostrum and listening to your nationwide anthem is likely one of the best emotions you may have,” he stated.
“However, the scrutiny that the athletes are consistently beneath – together with the comparisons to different sporting success tales – all the time fail to say the shortage of monetary help given.”
The 2015 lengthy bounce world champion added: “I actually hope the athletes throughout all sports activities will now lastly be supported by the multi-billion greenback IOC and their efforts, not simply by particular person sports activities, for the long-term well being of the Olympic motion.
“We do that for the love of the game, however additionally it is our livelihood.”
Swedish Olympic pole vault champion Armand Duplantis stated World Athletics’ transfer was a “step in the precise path”.
In the meantime, Norwegian Olympic 400m hurdle champion Karsten Warholm stated the prize cash didn’t change his motivation to win an Olympic gold medal, however he agreed it was the “proper path” for constructing an expert sport.
Nevertheless, Jonathan Edwards, GB gold medallist at Sydney 2000 and nonetheless the boys’s triple bounce world document holder, stated the choice was “a little bit bit odd”.
“It isn’t [World Athletics’] occasion, it is the Olympics. It looks like a little bit of an undercut to the IOC, who’ve been very strict round saying ‘we’re not going to have prize cash'”, stated the 57-year-old.
“Athletes who win on the Olympic Video games already get rewards.”