田径史上最大的一笔奖金

想象你只跑一场比赛，走下赛道时就比这项运动历史上几乎任何一位运动员都富有。这个月，在一项全新的锦标赛上，发生的正是这件事，而这项赛事从头到尾只围绕一个简单的想法：像对待真正的明星那样给冠军发钱。

Imagine running one race and walking away richer than almost any athlete in the history of your sport. That is exactly what happened this month at a brand new championship built entirely around one simple idea: pay the winners like real stars.

赛事把世界上最好的田径运动员聚在一起，只比几天，但奖金池是这项运动从未见过的规模，总额大约一千万美元。一个单项冠军拿走的钱，可能相当于许多运动员过去好几个赛季加起来的收入。

The event brought together the best track and field athletes in the world for just a few days of racing, but the prize fund was unlike anything the sport had seen before, worth about ten million dollars in total. A single event winner could take home an amount many athletes previously earned across several seasons combined.

支持者说，把运动员的报酬提到这个水平，终于让田径被当作它本来就是的大项目来对待。批评者则怀疑，长期来看这真的会改变什么。无论如何，在九月的那几天里，短跑和投掷选手忽然成了世界上收入最高的运动员之一。

Supporters say paying athletes this well finally treats track and field like the major sport it is. Critics wonder if it will actually change anything long term. Either way, for a few days in September, sprinters and throwers were suddenly some of the highest paid athletes in the world.