Skaters who have endowed academic professorships or chairs at universities

[Mathman]

Tenley Albright and her brother endowed a continuing symposium at Harvard Medical School in honor of their father, a long time faculty member. Tenley has herself has also served on the Harvard Medical School faculty.

Scott Hamilton was a principal in the creation of a professorship in Entrepreneurial Technology at the Bowling Green University Business School named in honor of his parents.

Any others?

 

[ladyjane]

I don't know about any figure skaters, as that's not a big sport in The Netherlands. However the well known soccer/football player Johan Cruijff did found a higher vocational (so not academic but close) training course (4 years of study) especially for young sportsmen/women at a high level. Founded in 1999, only one study 'sportsmarketing' but it can be studied on three locations spread out over the (small) country.

The idea behind it is that people in top sport should still be able to get intellectually challenged on the one hand, and have something to work in after their sports career is over. There are a lot of online courses (generally a phenomenon much rarer in the days before the pandemic when this all started), there is extra time for coaching and sports, lots of motivational stuff including among the students in itself, etc. etc..

 

[dorispulaski]

I don't think Professor and Coach Alexei Mishin ever endowed a university chair, but he surely has sat in one.

Mishin is a professor at the Lesgaft School of Sports Science and Physical Education and gives seminars all over the world.[2][14] He is taking part in the development of a figure skating device which measures the number of revolutions in jumps when attached to the skater's body. According to Mishin, this device has already been patented.[12]

His publications:

• Mishin, Alexei (1976). Figure skating jumps (in Russian). Moscow: Fizkultura i sport. p. 104.
• Mishin, Alexei (1979). School in figure skating (in Russian). Moscow: Fizkultura i sport. p. 175.
• Mishin, Alexei (1981). Biomechanics of figure skaters' moves (in Russian). Moscow: Fizkultura i sport. p. 144.
• Mishin, Alexei, ed. (1985). Figure skating: A study manual for sports colleges (in Russian). Moscow: Fizkultura i sport. p. 271.

 

[Mathman]

It costs about US$ 3 million to endow a continuing professorship or chair. There are not many figure skaters who have this much spare change, however academic-minded they might be.

Tenley Albright is a high society lady. I believe she comes from "old money."

Scott Hamilton hit the jackpot with the success of his touring show Stars on Ice.

I suppose that the richest figure skater must have been Sonja Henie. She made a fortune in Hollywood after her competitive skating career was over and invested a good portion of it in California real estate, at a time ( the 1940s and 50s) when California real estate was booming. When she died in 1969 she left an estate of US $50,000,000 -- and this was back in the days when 50 million dollars was a lot of money, even for a sports star.

 

[surimi]

IIRC, Tatsuki Machida is a professor, but I can't remember which Japanese university he works for.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

I suppose that the richest figure skater must have been Sonja Henie. She made a fortune in Hollywood after her competitive skating career was over and invested a good portion of it in California real estate, at a time ( the 1940s and 50s) when California real estate was booming. When she died in 1969 she left an estate of US $50,000,000 -- and this was back in the days when 50 million dollars was a lot of money, even for a sports star.

What about Vera Wang? She is worth a few bob...

CaroLiza_fan

 

[Mathman]

What about Vera Wang? She is worth a few bob...

Oh, yeah, she is indeed (although I think that her philanthropical activity is more in environmental and health causes.)

She was in the news a year ago when she sold her brand to the mega-fashion conglomerate WHP Global. Exact terms weren't made public, but at the time she was doing US$ 700,000,000 in annual sales.