This Is the Insane Amount of Money It Takes to Become an Olympic Figure Skater

[Debbie S]

For synchro we'd get $5000 if we went to nationals, but anywhere from $1000-2500 for Sectionals.

Oh, so you mean the team (16 skaters?) would get 5K to pay the team's costs as a whole?

 

[overedge]

Totally separate from the cost issue, but the Freezers moving around that often to different coaches raises some questions in my mind.

They could be moving for a family member's work, like Ashley Wagner did, or to follow a particular coach, like Todd Eldredge did. If they're not IME that many moves with a skater that age is, sadly, usually because of a parent getting frustrated that a coach is not making enough "progress" with the skater - which may simply be the coach doing what he or she thinks is appropriate for the skill level and ability of the skater. The parent thinks the skater is being "unfairly" held back and takes the skater elsewhere.

The comments upthread about the costume costs and the high amount of off ice training for a skater that age also concern me.

I hope that this is what Elise genuinely wants, and that if she decides it isn't what she wants, she can stop and go on to do something else.

 

[Willin]

@overedge Yeah, the moving thing seems exactly what I heard about one men's skater on our Olympic team. It's also something that happens to a lot of skaters with overbearing parents at my rink, although usually they're not travelling between World Class coaches but rather coaches that get a skater to Sectionals and Nationals occasionally.
It's funny because usually it takes at least a year for a coach to work their magic (just look at Raf and Mariah right now) and sometimes the skater hits a wall and it's no one's fault (usually it's puberty, but maybe it's a nagging injury or just the skater trying to learn what is their hardest element), yet usually these parents decide within a week or two - 6-12 months at the longest - that the coach isn't right for their kid.

For Elise's sake I hope it's a job issue and not a crazy parent so that once she gets old enough she can choose to stay with a coach she likes. The guy on our Olympic team is the only one I've seen the constant coach switching work out for in recent memory.

From her instagram, it does seem that she loves to skate - and a lot of the skaters with crazy coach-switcher parents do love to skate - but I worry she'll be burned out and want to live a normal life in one settled location because she's moving so much.

@Debbie S Yes. Although similar funding is given to the top singles skaters as well. I think right now it's possible as our club only had 1 or 2 skaters that got to Nationals this year. Only 10 got to Sectionals, but most were at lower levels or in non-singles disciplines, so they probably got a lot less club funding.

 

[Rafter]

The costs in Canada may not be the same as in the US as well. I don't get the costume costs either. Those are ridiculous.

I have a feeling ice time and coaching might be a bit cheaper in Canada. I pay $1000 for two kids to do CanSkate once a week from Sept to May. My 5 year old son plays hockey too and that’s about $1000 for the year. I recently inquired about private lessons at a central Toronto club and was told it’s $5 for half an hour of ice time (which I thought was super cheap) and the lessons are around $15 to $25 per fifteen minutes, depending on who you choose for the lesson.

I think it’s the choreography fees that can really get out of hand. Wasn’t Lori Nichol charging like $20,000 for a long program back in 2002 or 2006?

 

[overedge]

Coaching is definitely cheaper in Canada. From what I know even the very top coaches in Canada don't charge quite as much as a US coach on the level of, say, Frank Carroll. And mid-range US coaches charge considerably more than Canadian coaches with comparable qualifications.

Ice time in Canada can be cheaper in civic/municipal rinks but I don't think it's that much cheaper in privately run rinks.

 

[mag]

I think it’s the choreography fees that can really get out of hand. Wasn’t Lori Nichol charging like $20,000 for a long program back in 2002 or 2006?

Lori Nichol is certainly not required

You can get international level choreography and pay appropriately $10,000 or even a bit less for two senior programs. Juv and pre Novice/ intermediate choreography is often a lot less.

I know around here if you are on the provincial team there is free ice available (usually an hour a day) at a few municipal rinks.

I think the key is there is a lot you CAN spend money on, but you don’t HAVE to. Don’t get me wrong, skating is brutally expensive, but there are definitely areas where you can cut expenses.

 

[Tavi]

@overedge Yeah, the moving thing seems exactly what I heard about one men's skater on our Olympic team. It's also something that happens to a lot of skaters with overbearing parents at my rink, although usually they're not travelling between World Class coaches but rather coaches that get a skater to Sectionals and Nationals occasionally.
It's funny because usually it takes at least a year for a coach to work their magic (just look at Raf and Mariah right now) and sometimes the skater hits a wall and it's no one's fault (usually it's puberty, but maybe it's a nagging injury or just the skater trying to learn what is their hardest element), yet usually these parents decide within a week or two - 6-12 months at the longest - that the coach isn't right for their kid.

For Elise's sake I hope it's a job issue and not a crazy parent so that once she gets old enough she can choose to stay with a coach she likes. The guy on our Olympic team is the only one I've seen the constant coach switching work out for in recent memory.

From her instagram, it does seem that she loves to skate - and a lot of the skaters with crazy coach-switcher parents do love to skate - but I worry she'll be burned out and want to live a normal life in one settled location because she's moving so much.

@Debbie S Yes. Although similar funding is given to the top singles skaters as well. I think right now it's possible as our club only had 1 or 2 skaters that got to Nationals this year. Only 10 got to Sectionals, but most were at lower levels or in non-singles disciplines, so they probably got a lot less club funding.

Didn’t Elise’s family (or a family owned company?) sponsor the Tom Z Aerial Challenge jump competition in its inaugural year?

 

[Sylvia]

I posted this Colorado Springs Gazette article yesterday in the TV Alerts thread about Elise's TV commercial: https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/threads/the-skater-in-sun-trust-commercial.103298/

http://gazette.com/young-colorado-s...-of-olympic-themed-commercial/article/1620500
Excerpts:

The Freezers sold their Denver home and moved to a small apartment in Colorado Springs in 2012 when Elise's coaches suggested she would benefit from a higher level of training available here. Matt and Jennifer Freezer were Ph.D. candidates in engineering at the time.
Elise went from taking weekly skating lessons to daily training and competitive travel, and it took a lot to pay for that change. They became a one-car family. Matt took a second job, working at an engineering firm by day and teaching at a university in the evenings.
"We were not prepared for the costs of training," Jennifer said. "But when it's your kid and you see her so happy and so in love with skating, you make sacrifices."

Since moving to Colorado Springs, the Freezers both earned their Ph.D.s and opened their own engineering firm. Jennifer now can travel with Elise for training in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, "a quick two-hour flight," she said. She'll take her daughter to Canada for an afternoon of coaching and pull out her laptop and work remotely.
Elise, a seventh-grader, goes to school online and can do her studies wherever is convenient. She dreams of competing in the Olympics and of attending Princeton University, possibly to become an anesthesiologist.
While the faily's financial situation has improved, "you never forget the struggles," Jennifer said.

 

[mag]

Okay, so the Freezers should not be held up as a typical skating family. Taking an international flight, no matter how short, for “an afternoon of coaching” is not typical, not required, and IMHO, not sane.

 

[Sylvia]

I don't think it's fair to judge what is "sane" or "not sane" with incomplete information. I took a look at Jennifer Freezer's Instagram -- she and her daughter recently spent 3 weeks in Edmonton and plan to return after the Olympics are over.

 

[DimaToe]

Didn’t the Freezers sponsor Tom Z’s first jumping competition?

Maybe they are spending 10k on skating dresses and dropping $ on whatever they see necessary not because they are not sane or foolish, but because they can

 

[mag]

I don't think it's fair to judge what is "sane" or "not sane" with incomplete information. I took a look at Jennifer Freezer's Instagram -- she and her daughter recently spent 3 weeks in Edmonton and plan to return after the Olympics are over.

I was just going by what was posted “She'll take her daughter to Canada for an afternoon of coaching and pull out her laptop and work remotely.” Maybe “not sane” is incorrect in the stricted sense of the word, but it certainly screams crazy skating parent to beat all crazy skating parents to me. Going for three week I can understand. Going for a few hours, no, I just do not understand on any level.

Didn’t the Freezers sponsor Tom Z’s first jumping competition?

Maybe they are spending 10k on skating dresses and dropping $ on whatever they see necessary not because they are not sane or foolish, but because they can

They absolutely might be in which case more power to them. They are helping to keep all those who support the skating community employed. What I have a problem with is them being used as an example of what skating costs. That is misleading and will scare people away from the sport.

 

[Winnipeg]

Marbles or Double Dutch Skipping for me.

Running is relatively cost effective

 

[Winnipeg]

10K for a dress is excessive

 

[StasiyaGalustyanLove]

10K for a dress is excessive

I wonder if part of that large cost comes from making sure the dress is bullet proof?

American skaters and non-American skaters who compete in America have to go to tournaments in cities like Milwaukee and Detroit and Chicago where people get shot in public all the time. They need to put safety first! No one wants to get a bullet lodged in to them while they're on the way to the rink from their hotel! It's a scary awful world out there.

 

[Bonita]

I'm an adult who doesn't compete and at one point was spending about $12,00/year between 50 minutes of freestyle lessons, an hour of dance lessons per week plus ice time and exorbitant club fees.

 

[overedge]

Okay, so the Freezers should not be held up as a typical skating family. Taking an international flight, no matter how short, for “an afternoon of coaching” is not typical, not required, and IMHO, not sane.

Moving to another city for skating - and selling your house - when the skater is only taking lessons once a week is also very unusual IME. I get that there might have been more advanced coaching in the new city, but I think most parents would have at least tried their skater with more than one weekly lesson, to see if it would work for the skater, before moving *and* going straight into daily lessons.

 

[gkelly]

Moving to another city for skating - and selling your house - when the skater is only taking lessons once a week is also very unusual IME. I get that there might have been more advanced coaching in the new city, but I think most parents would have at least tried their skater with more than one weekly lesson, to see if it would work for the skater, before moving *and* going straight into daily lessons.

Agreed. But it might depend where they were living when they decided to increase the commitment. If they started in a town with one ice surface and therefore not enough ice time for serious training, and either no serious coaches or one or more overworked coaches who didn't have time to give this skater more lessons, then deciding to get serious could mean deciding to go somewhere that serious training is even possible.

I have no idea what this family's situation was. But when I lived in a more remote area I saw that all the serious skaters moved elsewhere to train, and we've heard stories about elite skaters who left home at early ages.

 

[Willin]

@gkelly According to the article, they lived in Denver. Now, Denver doesn't quite have the coaching power that Colorado Springs does, but it has a ton of rinks and a ton of skaters and coaches.

 

[millyskate]

Skating can be done on a budget that suits the family. One can spend a lot of money on travel, costumes, skates and coaching if one has it.

Or one can, like the Hendrickx's, succeed in sending two children to the Olympics on a very restricted family budget. Which involves making choices, all the way through, consistent with said budget - simpler costumes, turning down competition opportunities that are too expensive to travel to, the most affordable coaching option available, and not having family members attend competitions with the skaters. They've turned their restrictions into motivation and have achieved what many could only dream of.

It doesn't have to cost insane amounts. I know that ice time in the US is priced differently etc - but one doesn't need to go to the most expensive, big name coach to get results. There are internationally competitive skaters using recycled costumes, or off-the-rack costumes. I'm quite sure there are Olympic competitors this year whose whole families live on less than 35000 USD a year. The idea that one has to spend that for a skater who isn't even a senior is definitely flawed - one can, if one has it. But needs to? Definitely not.

 

[Foolhardy Ham Lint]

Running is relatively cost effective

If chasing after the Good Humor ice cream van can be deemed a sport, I'm in!

 

[Foolhardy Ham Lint]

Skating can be done on a budget that suits the family. One can spend a lot of money on travel, costumes, skates and coaching if one has it.

Or one can, like the Hendrickx's, succeed in sending two children to the Olympics on a very restricted family budget. Which involves making choices, all the way through, consistent with said budget - simpler costumes, turning down competition opportunities that are too expensive to travel to, the most affordable coaching option available, and not having family members attend competitions with the skaters. They've turned their restrictions into motivation and have achieved what many could only dream of.

It doesn't have to cost insane amounts. I know that ice time in the US is priced differently etc - but one doesn't need to go to the most expensive, big name coach to get results. There are internationally competitive skaters using recycled costumes, or off-the-rack costumes. I'm quite sure there are Olympic competitors this year whose whole families live on less than 35000 USD a year. The idea that one has to spend that for a skater who isn't even a senior is definitely flawed - one can, if one has it. But needs to? Definitely not.

Great post.

Maybe pouring money into the big name coach with political connections, the catwalk fashion designer, make-up tutorials, and god help me, smiling lessons, is just a North American mindset for making your mark and getting ahead in the sport.

 

[AxelAnnie]

I was just going by what was posted “She'll take her daughter to Canada for an afternoon of coaching and pull out her laptop and work remotely.” Maybe “not sane” is incorrect in the stricted sense of the word, but it certainly screams crazy skating parent to beat all crazy skating parents to me. Going for three week I can understand. Going for a few hours, no,

AH mazing you missed the part where they downsized their home, went down to one car with dad working two jobs.

I don't know how far they fly onto Canada,but the 400+ miles between SF and LA can be yours fir as low as $29.00 with planning ahead for tickets. Oh and mom works from the rink.

 

[MsZem]

Elise Freezer would have been 5 or 6 years old when her parents sold their house and relocated for better training. I don't remember who posted the Skate Canada document on long term athlete development (see here) but that seems to have more reasonable training guidelines for younger ages. Even if Ellie Freezer is and was a promising young skater, some of what her parents have done seems way over the top.

It's also worth remembering that some skaters have been extremely successful while staying with their childhood coaches. There isn't one template for a successful skating career.

 

[overedge]

I don't know how far they fly onto Canada,but the 400+ miles between SF and LA can be yours fir as low as $29.00 with planning ahead for tickets. Oh and mom works from the rink.

If you had paid attention when you read the story, you would have noticed that it states very clearly that they fly to Edmonton.

I can guarantee you that you won't find any flight from anywhere in the US to Edmonton for $29.

 

[Inessence]

Wait, you mean not everyone wears Vera Wang?

Maybe the Kohl’s version.

 

[vesperholly]

If you're careful and smart with credit cards, you can really rack up points to redeem for flights. They're actually really affordable points-wise.

I got a flight from Buffalo to Boston for 12,500 points. Comparatively, 5 nights in a mid-range hotel 30 min outside Boston was 60,000 points. I have a friend who paid for entire trips to Europe on points. I was impressed with the amount of traveling they did, and found out that it was all points. Refer a friend, sign up for bonuses, minimum spends for extra points, hotel loyalty cards. It's especially easy if you're buying big-ticket stuff for your house or $1,500 on new skates, $5,000 for ice time, etc.

 

[Erin]

If you had paid attention when you read the story, you would have noticed that it states very clearly that they fly to Edmonton.

I can guarantee you that you won't find any flight from anywhere in the US to Edmonton for $29.

The taxes alone would be more than $29. "Free" flights paid for with miles between the US and Canada usually cost $60+ dollars due to taxes.

 

[Skittl1321]

While USFSA doesn't give funding to lower level skaters, clubs will.
My club gives skaters who make Nationals $5000/year to cover travel and some training. I think sectionals skaters get some money, but a bit less than that. I think that might kick in at Juvenile or Intermediate. A lot of the skaters I knew would switch clubs to whoever was offering the most funding that year (ie. my home club was tight on funding due to having too many top skaters, so some of the skaters switched to another club that didn't have any and therefore was offering twice the money).

Not every club does this though. My club certainly doesn't have the funds for it. A nearby club gives a very small award, a few hundred dollars- to skaters who make nationals.
But I guess if you club hop, like you mentioned in your post, then that would be a way to get some funding.

 

[mag]

People, she specifically stated that they fly to Edmonton for “an afternoon of coaching.” (As in more than once) You can try to spin it anyway you want, but it certainly doesn’t sound like they did it once to try out a coach, and while they may have also gone for longer periods, this was an afternoon of coaching for an eleven year old for pitty sake! They may have the money to do, they may enjoy airports and customs, who knows. But from a strictly guiding you child through an already crazy sport this is probably not the best plan longterm for the child. I hope I am wrong.