Joe Rogan has often stood up for athletes getting paid the money that they deserve. And his most recent support came for the athletes competing in the Olympic Games. The 2024 Paris Olympics has been garnering quite a bit of attention from the entire sporting community. After all, it is the one arena where the best athletes from each country and each sport unite to compete against each other. 

Rogan reflected that the Olympics have become a giant in the world of business. Yet, the winners didn’t receive any prize money. No wonder, the 56YO podcaster was all in to support the athletes.

Joe Rogan and Khalil Rountree Jr. stand in support of the Olympic athletes

Needless to say, the Olympics earn a huge amount of money. As per the official website of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the International Olympic Committee allocated $1.29 billion, which includes $508 million from TOP partnerships and $816 million from TV rights. With revenues from ticketing, hospitality, and licensing, the total amount generated was $1.5 billion. The total estimated budget for the games was around $9.1 billion just for the Summer Olympics. According to Statista, this number is three times less than the Tokyo 2021 budget. It would also be the smallest budget for an Olympics since Sydney 2000.

On episode #161 of the JRE MMA Show, Rogan sat down together with Khalil Rountree Jr. and discussed the money matters regarding the Olympics. With a giant TV revenue, the podcaster expected the officials to let the athletes have a piece of the money. Rogan, as he pointed out how the Olympics became a business, said, “Back then, there was no television revenue. There was no one, no one was making billions and billions and billions of dollars. So, the Olympics started with, you know, a very pure intention. The pure intention of just, you know, winning. Being the best. But somewhere along the line, it became this f***ing enormous business, and the athletes never got cut in.”

When Rountree enquired if anyone ever questioned the IOC regarding the payment to the athletes, Rogan claimed that nobody had any power regarding the situation. He pointed out that the TV networks simply didn’t want any changes. He continued, “Everybody is like, ‘shut the f*** up!’ Because they’re just stealing. They’re just stealing money. Imagine that was the case with the NBA, or the NFL, or UFC. Imagine if the athletes got zero money, and everybody else is driving around in Rolls Royces, and living in mansions. It would be crazy!”

This wasn’t the first time when Rogan swooped in to defend the Olympic athletes. Let’s see what the beloved UFC color commentator had to say about the medalists’ prizes.

Joe Rogan believes the Olympic medalists should get a cash prize

While talking to Dr. Aron D’Souza and Christian Anermayer on episode #2166 of the JRE, Rogan pointed out the major issue with the Olympic rewards. After claiming that the Olympics were “disgusting”, he said, “All of them should be getting millions of dollars. All the winners of the gold medals, all those people that are generating insane amounts of wealth for the Olympics, they should get a giant piece of that.”

Adding on to Rogan’s thoughts, Dr. D’Souza revealed that the IOC doesn’t pay any of the athletes. Instead, the money goes to building stadiums and paying the officials. With facts laid up straight, the JRE host was pretty adamant in his take on the Olympic Games.

While the IOC doesn’t pay the athletes, World Athletics dived into the sportspersons’ financial aid and became the first-ever international governing body that rewarded the athletes with prize money. World Athletics has kept aside a prize pot of $2.4 million with every gold medalist winning $50 thousand, while the relay quartets will get $125 thousand each.

What are your thoughts on the 2024 Olympics? Do you side with Rogan in his belief that the Olympic athletes should get a piece of the collected revenue? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.