The wage bil for the IOC's top executive management team has risen by 50 per cent since 2018 ©Getty Images

The US dollar wage bill for the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s executive management has risen by 50 per cent in the space of four years.

Information contained in the newly published IOC annual report reveals that the salaries and short-term benefits received by members of the executive management excluding IOC President Thomas Bach amounted to $13.7 million (£10.8 million/€12.6 million) in 2022, a Winter Games year.

The equivalent figure for 2018, when the Winter Olympics and Paralympics were staged in Pyeongchang in South Korea, was $9.13 million (£7.2 million/€8.4 million).

The $4.57 million (£3.6 million/€4.2 million) difference is equivalent to almost exactly 50 per cent.

The dividends received by the Winter International Federations who took part at Beijing 2022 has decreased since Pyeongchang 2018 ©Getty Images
The dividends received by the Winter International Federations who took part at Beijing 2022 has decreased since Pyeongchang 2018 ©Getty Images

This does not mean that all IOC directors have seen their pay upgraded by this amount over the period in question.

For one thing, it seems likely that most, if not all, have their salaries denominated in Swiss francs; the Swiss franc/US dollar exchange rate will hence have a major bearing on the total reported in the IOC’s US dollar-denominated accounts.

For another, the number of individuals classed as IOC directors may well have increased over the four years.

Nevertheless, the magnitude of the reported increase is unlikely to pass unnoticed at a time when other entities plugged into the Olympic ecosystem are finding themselves squeezed as a consequence of the sluggish recent rise in Olympic broadcasting rights revenues and other factors.

For example, as recently reported, the Winter Olympic dividend paid to contributing International Sports Federations in the wake of the disrupted Beijing 2022 Games is less than they received in 2010.

Executive management is defined for these purposes as IOC director general Christophe de Kepper and all directors of the IOC.

When recently asked for a list of directors by insidethegames as part of an unrelated inquiry, the IOC provided a list of 24 names.

These include well-known figures such as Paquerette Girard Zappelli, chief ethics and compliance officer, Mark Adams, spokesman services director, and Richard Budgett, medical and scientific director, but also lower-profile individuals such as Marie Sallois, corporate and sustainable development director, and Ilario Corna, chief information and technology officer.

The IOC's directors, who include spokesman Mark Adams, now receive an average salary package of more than $570,000 ©Getty Images
The IOC's directors, who include spokesman Mark Adams, now receive an average salary package of more than $570,000 ©Getty Images

Assuming the number of executive managers stood at 24 throughout 2022, that would put the average salary/short-term benefits paid to each member of the group at more than $570,000 (£448,500/€522,500).

Clearly one would not expect the salaries of such individuals to be identical; in reality, the spread between the highest- and lowest-paid is probably substantial.

The new report makes it possible to analyse the financial performance of Beijing 2022 when set against Pyeongchang 2018 in some detail.

This detailed and exclusive insidethegames analysis can be found by clicking here.