RX2SKI
Certified Ski Diva
I've only read about 5 pages of this thread, so I'm not sure if this is covered.
In the U.S., after an Olympic year, the general public thinks all Olympians are rich except for a few "close and personal" "living out of the car" moments shown during the broadcasts. The general public is not aware of where skiers get their funding from (or about the lack of funding athletes receive). Very few athletes get funding from the U.S. Ski Team, U.S. Free Skiing, and U.S. Snowboarding associations. If you are extremely lucky, you're on the A-Team where your travel, competitions, and training are covered by your governing body. Except for those elite few, most athletes are contributing funds to train at the OTC or COE and paying for their travel.
Only the top few athletes that stand on the podium actually receive money due to their actual skiing ability. Most of the money (~75%) goes to the top 3; however, generally first through tenth get something. Although, this varies by discipline. The alpine racers fare much better than other disciplines. Here are the prize money rankings Alpine for last season: (choose 2014) https://data.fis-ski.com/alpine-skiing/prize-money-ranking.html So, roughly a dozen male and female athletes are making over 100,000 CHF. Shiffrin earned 257K CHF; Cook, 12K; Mancuso, 8.5K; Vonn, 7K; Smith, 6K; Stiegler, .6K. Except Shiffrin, the rest are under the poverty level. Luckily, in Alpine skiing, the payouts for men and women are equal.
When you look at the FIS site, Cross-Country, Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined, Freestyle Skiing, and Snowboarding do not even have any information on prize money ranking. In Alpine, if you win an event, 42000 CHF. In Freestyle, Aerials, 10000; Moguls, 8500 CHF. (Note: There are a lot fewer aerial competitions than mogul competitions, thus the higher payout.) At least the prize money for men and women are the same. (I wish I had the time to look up the amounts for each discipline.) In Ski Jumping, the prize money for the top male is 20000 CHF and the top female is 3000 CHF. I find it appalling that there are still prize money discrepancies between genders.
I guess what I'm saying is that you're not going to get rich for skiing and winning alone. If you're lucky, you'll get out of your career without debt and in relatively good health.
So an athlete like Mancuso, making less than $10K USD, on the World Cup and maybe a few thousand at U.S. Nationals, has to decide for herself how she is going to support herself now and in the future. The only way to do this is through sponsorship money. Then, an athlete must make a decision of what types of sponsors to pursue based on which sponsors are making an offer.
We're the skiing community and we know these names. The general public only knows a handful of these names every four years--even fewer are recognized on non-Olympic years.
I have no answers, only wishes and dreams. I know I prefer my niece to see an ad with a clothed Shiffrin over someone else that is not wearing as much. I'd like to see the skiers in ski gear--or at least workout gear. However, I don't want to judge someone for making that decision to pursue one type of sponsorship over another path since she wants to follow her passion and do what she loves--to ski!
My dad always says that until someone will come out and buy a ticket to watch you compete, it's still an amateur sport. I never liked that saying, but I definitely see the truth in it.
The biggest irony for me is that when I saw that Lange photo, it really ticked me off--and Lange was my last boot sponsor. Prior to that, it was Nordica. And that was back in the 80s when all of their posters were with scantily clad women wearing not a whole lot with their ski boots. And my ski sponsors put out the same types of ads. But it didn't impact my decision back in my teens and twenties. All I wanted to do was ski bumps, ski ballet, compete, make the US team, and represent the best country in the world--I accepted whatever equipment sponsors I could get. It never crossed my mind that the women in those ads/posters had anything to do with me and my goals. From what I remember, most were models--probably not even skiers.
In the U.S., after an Olympic year, the general public thinks all Olympians are rich except for a few "close and personal" "living out of the car" moments shown during the broadcasts. The general public is not aware of where skiers get their funding from (or about the lack of funding athletes receive). Very few athletes get funding from the U.S. Ski Team, U.S. Free Skiing, and U.S. Snowboarding associations. If you are extremely lucky, you're on the A-Team where your travel, competitions, and training are covered by your governing body. Except for those elite few, most athletes are contributing funds to train at the OTC or COE and paying for their travel.
Only the top few athletes that stand on the podium actually receive money due to their actual skiing ability. Most of the money (~75%) goes to the top 3; however, generally first through tenth get something. Although, this varies by discipline. The alpine racers fare much better than other disciplines. Here are the prize money rankings Alpine for last season: (choose 2014) https://data.fis-ski.com/alpine-skiing/prize-money-ranking.html So, roughly a dozen male and female athletes are making over 100,000 CHF. Shiffrin earned 257K CHF; Cook, 12K; Mancuso, 8.5K; Vonn, 7K; Smith, 6K; Stiegler, .6K. Except Shiffrin, the rest are under the poverty level. Luckily, in Alpine skiing, the payouts for men and women are equal.
When you look at the FIS site, Cross-Country, Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined, Freestyle Skiing, and Snowboarding do not even have any information on prize money ranking. In Alpine, if you win an event, 42000 CHF. In Freestyle, Aerials, 10000; Moguls, 8500 CHF. (Note: There are a lot fewer aerial competitions than mogul competitions, thus the higher payout.) At least the prize money for men and women are the same. (I wish I had the time to look up the amounts for each discipline.) In Ski Jumping, the prize money for the top male is 20000 CHF and the top female is 3000 CHF. I find it appalling that there are still prize money discrepancies between genders.
I guess what I'm saying is that you're not going to get rich for skiing and winning alone. If you're lucky, you'll get out of your career without debt and in relatively good health.
So an athlete like Mancuso, making less than $10K USD, on the World Cup and maybe a few thousand at U.S. Nationals, has to decide for herself how she is going to support herself now and in the future. The only way to do this is through sponsorship money. Then, an athlete must make a decision of what types of sponsors to pursue based on which sponsors are making an offer.
We're the skiing community and we know these names. The general public only knows a handful of these names every four years--even fewer are recognized on non-Olympic years.
I have no answers, only wishes and dreams. I know I prefer my niece to see an ad with a clothed Shiffrin over someone else that is not wearing as much. I'd like to see the skiers in ski gear--or at least workout gear. However, I don't want to judge someone for making that decision to pursue one type of sponsorship over another path since she wants to follow her passion and do what she loves--to ski!
My dad always says that until someone will come out and buy a ticket to watch you compete, it's still an amateur sport. I never liked that saying, but I definitely see the truth in it.
The biggest irony for me is that when I saw that Lange photo, it really ticked me off--and Lange was my last boot sponsor. Prior to that, it was Nordica. And that was back in the 80s when all of their posters were with scantily clad women wearing not a whole lot with their ski boots. And my ski sponsors put out the same types of ads. But it didn't impact my decision back in my teens and twenties. All I wanted to do was ski bumps, ski ballet, compete, make the US team, and represent the best country in the world--I accepted whatever equipment sponsors I could get. It never crossed my mind that the women in those ads/posters had anything to do with me and my goals. From what I remember, most were models--probably not even skiers.
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