How does it feel to win $1m?
Did you think there was no money in athletics. Think again! The IAAF Golden League offers any athlete who wins his or her discipline at all six events a share of a $1m jackpot. It attracts the cream of world athletics. Here's what the champs did with their cash...
Jeremy Wariner (USA)
Event: 400m
Year: 2006
Shared the $1m Golden League prize with 400m sprinter Sanya Richards and 100m sprinter Asafa Powell
Spent the money on: A house
JW: It was great to know that I was part of the Golden League jackpot just to show that all the hard work I did that year had paid off. Knowing that at the end of the year I had such a big pay-off was great. I worked hard for it and I earned it. I put the money in the bank and saved it so that when I was ready to buy a house I had enough to put a down payment on it.
Trine Hattestad – (Norway)
Event – Javelin
Year: 2000
Shared 50kg of gold bars with Hicham El Guerrouj (1500m/mile), Maurice Greene (100m), Tatyana Kotova (Long Jump) for winning five out of seven Golden League events
Spent the money on: A log cabin in the Norwegian mountains
TH: It is a major thing to win because you have to win events over a whole season, that’s what makes it so special. You have to keep on winning and, sure it’s a lot of pressure, but I won quite easily in Berlin to take the jackpot. I think it was special to share the prize, because often in athletics is only about yourself. It was a big thing to win, maybe not as big as an Olympics or World Championships, but a big thing. I regularly go up to the long cabin I bought with my Golden League jackpot winnings with my four children.
Yelena Isinbayeva – (Russia)
Event – Pole Vault
Year: 2007
Shared the $1m dollar jackpot with American 400m sprinter Sanya Richards after winning all six Golden League competitions.
Spent the money on: Kids at an orphanage
YI: It was very difficult to win because there was pressure because I knew from the beginning I couldn’t lose any competitions. I knew it was harder after winning (the World Championships) in Osaka and I felt the tension. When I competed in Berlin, the last competition, I didn’t want to lose because I had come a long way. I did not spend the money on myself but it went to an orphanage in my hometown of Volgograd. I gave them a pen and a paper, asked them three things that they would like to have and bought everything for them.
Maria Mutola – Mozambique
Event – 800m
Year: 2003
Was the first person to ever win the jackpot of $1m outright after remaining undefeated through the Golden League season
Spend the money on: Boosting the coffers of the Maria Mutola Foundation
MM: Actually, to win the jackpot was a big aim of mine and I trained that year to try and win it. Going into the final race in Brussels I was very nervous and I had a sleepless night. The media from all around the world was talking about the £1m dollars and I was receiving that many calls for the first time in my career I had to unplug my phone in the hotel. The feeling when I crossed the finish line to win in Brussels was more one of relief but, of course, I was emotional and very, very happy.
Christian Olsson
Event: Triple Jump
Year: 2004
Shared the $1m Golden League jackpot with Tonique Williams-Darling, the Bahamian 400m sprinter
Spent the money on: He hasn’t spent the money yet!
CO: As it was 2004 and Olympic year Athens was the main focus, rather than the jackpot. When the competitions are spread so far apart I don’t think I really felt close (to winning) until the fifth competition, which was in Brussels. If I remember correctly only two survived from four potential jackpot winners and at the final meeting in Berlin I started to feel a little nervous. I was very proud to be the first Swede to win the jackpot and after landing $500,000 the feeling was a little unreal…but very, very good.
Felix Sanchez
Event: 400m hurdles
Year: 2002
The athlete from the Dominican Republic shared the $1m jackpot with middle-distance star Hicham El Guerrouj, 400m runner Ana Guevara and Marion Jones, the 100m sprinter
Spent the money on: A house and a car and I put some of it into trust fund and mutual funds
FS: Winning the jackpot was really stressful and mentally draining. In 2002 winning the jackpot was my only focus because there was no World Championships or Olympics to act as a distraction. I remember watching the meet after I ran to see who got eliminated to see if my portion of the jackpot got bigger. It was a relief to win it and I was happy to stretch my winning streak back two years leading back to mid-2001.
Sanya Richards
Event: 400m
Year: 2006 and 2007
The American one-lap star shared the 2006 jackpot with her training partner, 400m sprinter Jeremy Wariner, and 100m sprinter Asafa Powell. In 2007 she split the cash with Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva.
Spent money on: The first jackpot went on a Mercedes CLS 2007 series and the second jackpot went into securing financial future.
SR: It’s extremely tough to try and stay on top form for over three months. The jackpot was a little easier to win in the first season because I was training with Jeremy Wariner (fellow Golden League jackpot winner) and we could use each other to stay motivated and during that first year there was not as much expectation on me. But the second year was tougher because I got ill and missed a lot of training. I also didn’t do well at the World Championships, so it was a lot more rewarding to win the Golden League. To win the Golden League is one of the most satisfying feelings because you have gone undefeated for so long and it is an accomplishment so few have ever achieved.
See the full list of Golden League Jackpot winners and who's in contention to win $1m this season.