By Milly McEvoy
Emily Campbell says money does not motivate her, but she is ready to cash in at Paris 2024.
Campbell, the first British woman to win a weightlifting Olympic medal when she claimed silver in Tokyo, was speaking after World Athletics announced they would be giving gold medallists at this summer’s Olympics $50,000 each.
It is the first international sport federation to hand out prize money at a summer or winter Games, but the 29-year-old believes it will have little impact on athletes.
Paris bonuses?
“I think any form of money in this life is a bonus but the reason why you get into sport is because we love it,” said Campbell.
“The reason why we continue to do it is because we can represent our country and we can win medals that represent the hard work that we put in.
“Don’t get me wrong, no one is going to sit here and say that the money is not important, money is nice but I don’t think there is any athlete on the planet that is going to be doing the Olympics just so they can win prize money. I don’t think that is going to be the case.
“You want to be thinking about the wider impact you can make of winning those medals or going out there and representing your country, you don’t have to win a medal to inspire people.
“The athletics lot, it might give them a little bit more motivation but no more motivation than they already need.”
Campbell was speaking as an ambassador for Aldi, who have been the official supermarket of Team GB since 2015.
Aldi provide athletes with monthly vouchers for their food shop but also give back through ‘Get Set to Eat Fresh’ initiative, which is a free, school-based education programme which teaches children about affordable healthy eating.
The Tokyo 2020 silver medallist, who consumes 4,200 calories a day, is looking to return to the podium in Paris and is currently in the middle of a gruelling block of training.
Preparation
She added: “We’re still deep in the strength block at the moment, so we are just getting strong, we are tightening things, we are making sure that things really work so in terms of training we’ve still got quite a long time.
“It is exciting at the moment, but it is not glamorous, training is just getting the hard graft in but that’s what you do.
“It is kind of like banking the money ready to deposit on the day which is something I saw when I watched a video of Michael Phelps.
“He said every day in training is like putting a deposit in the bank and the more you deposit, the more you have to withdraw come the day of competition and I thought that was a really good way of thinking of it.
“I’m massively inspired by other athletes because everyone has such different stories, and everyone takes different journeys to get there.
“There is no athlete that goes to the Olympic Games that didn’t try their absolute hardest.
“To be around people and see people achieve things and go through certain things, it inspires me every day. It reminds me of how lucky I am to be in this position.”
Aldi are proud Official Partners of Team GB & ParalympicsGB, supporting all athletes through to Paris 2024
