According to jamaicaobserver_biz, LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AFP)—The International Olympic Committee, which has been under growing pressure to introduce prize money to the Olympics, on Wednesday announced it was setting up a grant for every athlete who takes part in the Games. "Every athlete at the Olympic Games will be eligible for a new $10,000 (8,800 euros) 'Fit for the Future Olympian Grant'," said the IOC on its website, adding that the total fund would be worth $140mn for each four-year Olympic cycle. "All Olympians, no matter where they're from doesn't matter where they finish," would be entitled to the grant, said the chair of the Athletes' Commission Pau Gasol, during a press conference at the IOC Session in Lausanne. Gasol, a former Spanish basketball star, added that the payment would be "acknowledging the importance and relevance of being an Olympian, participating and representing your sport and to your country in the Games." "It's not prize money," he stressed. The IOC said athletes who competed at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games this year would be eligible to apply once the application process had been set up. While the Olympics have long since dropped the requirement that athletes are amateurs, the IOC has been reluctant to pay.