Olympic cash debate swirls ahead of swimming trials

Shayna Jack wants athletes to get what they "deserve" as an Olympic prize money debate intensifies. (Getty Images: Chris Hyde)

Shayna Jack has supported the idea of prize money in the Olympic Games.

International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry declared she did not believe in awarding prize money for winning medals.

The debate was sparked after the large prize purse offered to athletes in the pro-doping Enhanced Games.

Australian swimmer Shayna Jack has added her voice to growing calls for Olympic prize money, believing athletes are missing out on what they financially deserve.

International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry lit a fuse just days after the controversial Enhanced Games were staged last month, declaring she did not believe in awarding cash bonuses for medals.

The pro-doping Enhanced Games had offered a total prize pool of US$25 million ($35.1 million), dangling carrots of $US250,000 for event winners and a $US1 million bonus for breaking official world records.

Despite the drugs and the super suits, the Enhanced Games delivered little more than a smattering of PBs and a single world fastest time for the hefty price of an athlete's hard-earned credibility.

While winners of Olympic medals are not financially compensated by the IOC, some member nations have incentive programs.

Through the Australian Olympic Committee's medal incentive fund, athletes can earn $20,000 for winning gold, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for bronze.

"Everybody can acknowledge that with the cost of living, everybody wants a pay rise," Jack said on Friday.

"We continue to be grateful for [our funding], but we also want to ensure that athletes are getting what they do deserve.

"Cam has some great points about how we can potentially gain shares in the future of swimming and the future of sport.

"For me, that's really important to be backing him and supporting him as an athlete as well."

While Australian swimmers who break a world record at an Olympics or Commonwealth Games earn a bonus funded by the sport's benefactor Gina Rinehart, McEvoy did not receive prize money for his world record swim as it was achieved at the China Open.

Paris Olympic gold medallists Jack and McEvoy will be in action at next week's high-stakes trials in Sydney, where the six-day meet will decide who makes the cut for this year's Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacific Championships.

Jack, who served a two-year ban for failing an out-of-competition drug test in 2019, would not be drawn on the Enhanced Games.

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