Beatrice Chebet to walk away with biggest pay cheque from Team Kenya athletes at Paris Olympics

Beatrice Chebet celebrates with Kenyan fans after winning the 10,000m race at Paris 2024 Olympics.

Beatrice Chebet to walk away with biggest pay cheque from Team Kenya athletes at Paris Olympics

Joel Omotto 10:00 - 11.08.2024

Double Olympics champion Beatrice Chebet will earn the highest amount from the Team Kenya contingent in at the Paris 2024 Games thanks to her heroics in 5,000m and 10,000m.

Beatrice Chebet will be the most rewarded Kenyan athlete from the Paris Olympics following her double gold medal wins in 5,000m and 10,000m races.

Chebet held her nerve to claim the 10,000m gold medal, adding it onto the 5,000m Olympics title that she won earlier in the week.

With the two gold medals, Chebet is guaranteed Ksh19 million from the Paris Olympics, coming from World Athletics and the Kenyan government.

Athletics became the first sport to start rewarding Olympians who perform exemplarily and will only be giving prize money to gold medallists in Paris, while silver and bronze will attract rewards from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The global athletics governing body will be rewarding gold medallists with $50,000 (Ksh6.5 million) while the Ministry of Sports will reward each gold medallist with Ksh3 million while silver will attract Ksh2 million as bronze medallists take home Ksh1 million.

After bagging the first installment of a total of Ksh9.5 million from the World Athletics and government rewards, Chebet will now pocket a similar amount following her heroics on Friday when she won the race in a time of 30:43.25 ahead of Italian Nadia Battocletti (30:43.35) and Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan (30:44.12).

That will take her total reward from the Paris Games to Ksh19 million, making her the highest earner from Team Kenya as no other athlete has won two gold medals.

It has been a good year for Chebet, who besides the Olympics and World Cross-Country titles, also broke the 10,000m world record at the Prefontaine Classic, the Eugene Diamond League in May.

She is also set to command huge appearance fees from her races thanks to her new status as a double Olympics champion.