Bounties for runs are a thing sometimes, but they're pretty rare. Money and speedrunning can be controversial, especially with gambling. Kind of messes up the community aspect, though tournament money is still fine.
Speedrunning will never be part of the Olympics. If esports are already tough to include, I can't imagine a niche, very decentralized hobby would make sense at all.
if you only pick up hobbies that will make their investment back you must not value fun very highly. The closest thing to cash rewards are the very few glitches in games with large communities that want a setup for it like the original TLoZ:Windwaker.
Your olympics comment is very weird, given that speedrunning a game requires that specific commercial product, which is not a thing they would endorse in that fashion, which is one of the reasons esports may not be included anytime soon.
So long and thanks for all the Trolls! FINGER GUNS THREE ELABORATE FULL-BODY WINKS A LITTLE JIG JAZZ HANDS
I love when people start trolling and deleting their messages after
Aww darn, I think I mighta hurt their feelings. Do hope they actually try a run though. It's fun, and we're friendly to non-jerkholes.