Figure Skating related jobs

[Debbie S]

Just curious about what kind of skating-related jobs might be available beyond the obvious like coaching?

Hmmm, well beyond working for the USFSA or other nat'l federation, I can't think of anything that will solely be about skating. You could start your own video, photography, or costume design business, but as others have said it's getting harder for a video or photog to profit these days, and to design costumes you need to have a lot of talent.

Someone could work in sports journalism, or athlete or event management/marketing and might occasionally get to work in the skating world, but they would have to be prepared to work in other sports, too.

[acraven]

The just-published ISU Communication 1631 on evaluation of officials includes an updated payment schedule for officials. See pages 11 and 12:

http://isu.sportcentric.net/db//files/serve.php?id=1951

The organizing federation pays each official (which includes judges, referees, and members of the technical panel as well as others) 300 Swiss francs for each Grand Prix event/final, 200 Swiss francs for each Junior Grand Prix event/final, and 40 Swiss francs per day for each ISU championship.

Then at the end of the season, the ISU pays officials who have worked at least three events of the above types 500 Swiss francs for the first three events and 100 Swiss francs for each additional event.

The Swiss franc is nearly at par with the US dollar these days, so we can think of those payments as if they were in US dollars.

Officials who are suspended or demoted must pay back payments received for the year.

So once you reach the level of working at ISU events, there is some modest compensation.

[sailornyanko]

If you really are ambitious, you could go into sports medicine.

Ambitious and not worried about living like a pauper indeed! Sports medicine is one of the most poorly paid medical subspecialties. You can train for it after finishing Internal Medicine or Family Medicine. That means another 2-3 years of being a resident with sucky pay while your school intuition debt keeps on going up just to find out in the end you'll be lucky if you earn 180,000 a year at the end while owing 500,000 dollars. You've gotta really love the specialty if you're seriously going for it.

As for the OP's question, does being a Zamboni driver count?

[carriecmu0503]

As a former health professions advisor at an Ivy League institution, I can tell you the post below is not entirely correct. People do NOT (and usually do not, unless they decide to re specialize) have to go through an internal or family medicine residency before completing an orthopedic (sports med) residency. As a surgical specialty, it is also definitely not one of the most poorly paid specialties. Of course, this information comes from the US system; I don't know the country the OP is from.

Ambitious and not worried about living like a pauper indeed! Sports medicine is one of the most poorly paid medical subspecialties. You can train for it after finishing Internal Medicine or Family Medicine. That means another 2-3 years of being a resident with sucky pay while your school intuition debt keeps on going up just to find out in the end you'll be lucky if you earn 180,000 a year at the end while owing 500,000 dollars. You've gotta really love the specialty if you're seriously going for it.

As for the OP's question, does being a Zamboni driver count?

[zaphyre14]

As far as I know, Zamboni driver isn't a profession. It's just one of the duties people who work at rinks have to do, along with sweeping floors and changing light bulbs. It' does take a little more skill than most of the tasks but it's not as if the rink hires someone to do nothing but drive the Zamboni.