After the remuneration of the top staff of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) became known – Director General Christophe De Kepper received $1.43 million (1.36 million euros) in 2021, including bonuses, bonuses and payments for pension rights – Germany is demanding “detailed accountability” for athletes “Use of the Olympic billions” and economic participation by the approximately 13,000 athletes who take part in the Olympic Games in summer and winter. “If the IOC uses ten percent of its sales for internal purposes and salaries, it would only be appropriate to distribute this share of almost 800 million US dollars to athletes directly and without detours,” writes Athletes Germany in response to a request from the FAZ.
On Tuesday, the American non-profit platform Pro Publica published the IOC’s information to the US tax authority IRS, starting with the year 2004. The most recent documents concern the year 2021. This shows the (in some cases sharply increased) remuneration of the IOC’s permanent management out. Among the 21 “officers, directors, administrators, key employees and highest earners,” as stated in the IRS Form 990, De Kepper is the highest-paid employee.
At the other end of the salary ladder is Kaveh Mehrabi, who was paid a total of $405,163 (€386,914). Mehrabi is director of the IOC’s Athletes Department. Its president, Thomas Bach, is considered to be working on a voluntary basis and was compensated $275,000 (262,614 euros) for his efforts in 2021, according to the 2022 IOC report.
“It is high time that the real top performers in the Olympic movement receive appropriate top salaries – namely the athletes,” demands Athletes Germany. Many of them practiced sport at a top level under precarious conditions. Against this background, it is difficult to convey that the IOC pays around twenty executives more than 50 million dollars (around 47.6 million euros) over a four-year period. The IOC earned $7.6 billion (€7.3 billion) in the last four years of the Olympics. It prides itself on distributing more than 90 percent of its income to world sports associations.
A comment from Christoph Becker Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 18 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 8 Alexander Davydov Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 14
“Whether these salary ranges for the IOC’s management staff really start in the mid-six-figure range and have to grow to almost 1.5 million US dollars per year is more than questionable and needs to be critically questioned,” writes Athletes Germany. “Also because the IOC does not always provide the performance in international sports policy that can be expected from the umbrella organization of the Olympic Movement.”
