Olympic status quo (3): IOC directors earn more money than athletes, Olympic champions – and more than any IF

New data have come in: with the salaries of the IOC directors for 2023, which I will briefly present to you, I will take a two-week break and wish you and your loved ones all the best for 2025. Get some rest. Recharge your batteries. Stay loyal to this newsletter and recommend it to others. Thank you for your interest and for your numerous subscriptions this year!

You will definitely not be disappointed in 2025. This theatre is guaranteed to provide many good new stories – look forward to numerous exclusive documents, analyses and background information, with the first exclusive articles for 2025 already in the works.

So now to the latest salaries of the IOC directors, thanks to ProPublica. The tax returns for 2023 have been submitted – the Form 990 to the US tax authority IRS (Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax).

I had already presented the data for 2022 and 2021:

Olympic status quo: IOC directors earn more money than athletes, Olympic champions – and more than any IF

The salaries of the directors of the International Olympic Committee remain exorbitantly high. Around $50 millions are paid over the four-year cycle - probably several millions more. Read the full list for 2022 after we published it last autumn for 2021.

THE INQUISITORJens Weinreich

IOC directors earn more money than Olympic champions – and more than any single Olympic sport

It is one of the most intriguing questions about the dubious dictatorship of IOC President Thomas Bach: Why were the salaries of some IOC directors almost doubled in the middle of the COVID crisis? Why do his loyal servants earn more money from the IOC in one Olympiad than any Olympic IF?

THE INQUISITORJens Weinreich

In the Form 990, the IOC administration must also provide information on the salaries, bonuses and other benefits for the executives. You will look in vain for such information in the IOC's annual financial reports – like many other fundamentally detailed figures that have never been published.

For example? In the annual reports …

• There is no detailed information on individual payments from all sponsors and other partners, only totals.
• There is no detailed information on individual payments by all TV rights holders, only totals.
• There are no details of individual payments made by the IOC to each National Olympic Committee, only totals.
• There is no detailed information on individual payments made by the IOC to all Olympic sport federations (IFs), only totals and, in minor cases, a small amount of information (e.g. on payments for guest Olympic sports).
• There is no detailed information on exact payments and services provided by the IOC and its partners to Olympic Organising Committees – only totals, which do not distinguish, for example, between cash payments and value in kind services.

The list of all IOC payments for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and what it means for Tokyo

For the first time ever it can be revealed in detail how much cash the IOC paid to an Olympic host. Investigative journalist Jens Weinreich publishes the list of 117 payments to Rio 2016 in a worldwide exclusive in his magazine SPORT & POLITICS.

THE INQUISITORJens Weinreich

Here is the total compensation of the directors for now – the salaries from 2021, 2022 and 2023 extrapolated to the Olympic cycle.

The questionable Olympic constant is that under the IOC deity Thomas Bach, the salaries of executives have risen exorbitantly. Why?

The total amounts will be significantly higher, because bonuses and prizes for the Olympic Games in Paris will certainly be paid in 2024.