Boxing follows athletics with prize money for Paris Olympics medal winners

The International Boxing Association (IBA) said it would follow the example of World Athletics by paying prize money to medal winners at the Paris Olympics.

IBA have made the announcement despite the fact that the boxing programme at the Paris Games will be run by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after the federation was stripped of the role because of corruption concerns.

The IBA, which is backed by Russian gas giant Gazprom, has offered bigger rewards than track and field’s global body, which is paying $50,000 to gold medallists , but nothing to the silver or bronze winners at this year’s Games.

The boxing federation says it will pay gold, silver and bronze medallists bonuses from a total budget of $3.1 million.

World Athletics' move had attracted criticism from other federations for working unilaterally. Meanwhile, IOC president Thomas Bach distanced himself from the decision.

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In an interview in April, Bach said: “The international federations have to treat all their member federations and their athletes on an equal basis and to try to balance this gap between the privileged and the less or under-privileged.”