As a reward for finishing first in qualifying for a World Cup ski jumping event, organizers presented the male winner Jan Haerl with 3,000 Swiss francs (about R$19,933.29), and the female winner Selina Freitag with towels and shampoo.
“I received a bag with shower gel, shampoo and four hand towels,” Freitag told German TV channel BR24 after finishing first in the qualifier for the Two Nights Tournament in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, on December 30. “Unfortunately we didn’t have about five hundred (euros) left.”
The FIS, skiing’s governing body, has said women in qualifying events do not receive prize money like their male counterparts.
They stated that the gift also included a voucher for a weekend of wellness treatments and was “certainly well-intentioned, but it is understandable that it may have generated frustration and given a bad impression if seen as formal compensation for the win. This was not the case.”
The FIS added that women’s ski jumping is still a relatively new sport with less public interest and marketing revenue than its men’s counterpart and consequently has less money available for prizes. CNN also reached out to the event organizer for comment.
The discrepancy in available prize money “highlights the inequalities that still exist in sport to this day”, published Her Sport, an advocacy group for gender equality in sport, on X.
“We often hear the argument that it depends on revenue generation, but… revenue does not grow in a vacuum,” the group added. “It starts with investment and commitment to closing the gap.”
The event was won by Nika Prevc, from Slovenia, who received R$28,571.05 Swiss francs in prize money. Austrian Daniel Tschofenig, who won the men’s competition, won 13,000 Swiss francs (about R$86,377.59) in prize money.
