Top 10 All Time Richest Figure Skaters in the World

[jenaj]

Dick Button, if his New York apartment is any indication.

 

[jenaj]

I doubt that it was ever that high for a single year. According to publicly accessible records, during Michelle's highest earning years she was paid about $900,000 directly from the USFSA. This money, I am pretty sure, came from the ABC television contract in exchange for a guarantee that Michelle would skate in the five ABC shows, Skate America, U.S. Nationals, and the three cheesefests. Her contract with Disney might have paid as much as a million dollars per year, and her contract with General Motors was also reported at $1,000,000, although I think that was for more than one year. She did have a slew of endorsements, though -- Shep Goldberg was a genius at what he did.

Long term, it depends on what the athletes do with their money. It was mentioned upthread that Tara owns real estate. (I hope she didn't lose her shirt in 2007.) Sonia Henie invested a lot of the money she made as a movie star in California real estate at a good time. Dorothy Hamill made a bundle, then lost it by bad investments, especially in Ice Capades which went broke.

Some of Michelle's holdings were made public by law when her husband ran for governor of Rhode Island. (He dropped more than 3 million dollars of his personal fortune on the campaign -- but no need to feel sorry for him, he has plenty left. )

I would be very surprised if Mao Asada's accumulated holdings are not in the tens of millions of dollars US. If Yuna Kim lives long enough she will be a billionaire (in $US) some day. Plushenko is the ultimate rags to riches story. Julia Lipnitskaia is another who was born in difficult circumstances and fought her way to success. Brian Boitano seems to have taken care of his money. Peggy Fleming recently sold her beachside house in California for millions.

Anyway, good for them.

Also, Michelle married a trust-fund baby. He spent $3 million of his own money on his campaign and presumably has plenty left over.

 

[evangeline]

Dick Button, if his New York apartment is any indication.

I would not be surprised if Dick Button's apartment alone is worth over $35.5million USD. 14 rooms, Manhattan Upper East Side, and probably pre-war? An apartment like that is insanely expensive.

 

[salchowx4]

In addition to his luxurious UES apartment, Dick owns that place in North Salem with acres of land and huge gardens. I'm sure it's not worth anywhere near what the apartment is, but it's gotta be at least a mil or two. Don't know if he has any other properties, but obviously the dude is doing well.

 

[ks777]

I highly doubt that Mao only earned $5 million. I bet Shizuka earned at least $5 million. Miki, Shizuka and Nubunari Oda have many tv appearances, I bet they made more than 5 millions. I thought I heard Oda was one of the most popular tv personalities right now in Japan?

 

[mnm464]

This may be considered irrelevant, but is Gracie Gold rich? Also, does the USFSA take all sponsorships money that Yu Na would normally get but say, Oh I dunno Evan Lysacek? I heard that you get paid, but not a lot, which prevents skaters from making big big money from their career?

 

[nguyenghita]

This may be considered irrelevant, but is Gracie Gold rich?

I think she is not poor or in debt, can't tell she's rich yet, especially for American standard.

 

[merrywidow]

Has Elvis Stojko's name been mentioned yet? I remember reading that he was Canada's highest paid athlete at the height of his career in the 90's & primarily do to endorsements. As to Dick Button, you do know he was born into a very wealthy family so presumably some of his money was inherited?

 

[BlackPack]

Those rich lists aren't always reliable. The people on the top of the Forbes' list are in fact not the richest; there are private individuals with private companies, which aren't listed publicly, who are wealthier than the people on the Forbes' list.

Some posters have made very good points. The older generation like Dick Button probably own property whose values would have grown over time. It's just the press isn't tracking them or have a very good idea of how to calculate net worth and assets.

Currently, it seems that Yuna and Mao have the most endorsements, shows, etc. that are bringing them high income, which is why they are on the "richest" lists as of now. Some of the press calculate net worth based on some endorsements. They don't take into account other sources of income.

How you invest that income is a whole other story.

I would think Michelle is far wealthier than $6.5m if she invested wisely. Athletes often have a plethora of money managers and bankers swarming around them, so I would think athletes, very aware of the short shelf life of their careers, would have invested in something.

Evan Lysacek is missing from the list. There was a big deal about his net worth some years ago. He seems like a shrewd businessman, so I would think his earnings are relatively intact or have probably increased since he did buy Beverly Hills (?) property.

The only thing that's safe to say is that the athletes on these lists are probably not struggling to meet basic needs, but as for real net worth, it takes an actual audit of all their income, assets, properties, etc. to be determined.

 

[karne]

These lists make me uncomfortable. The financial status of a person is that person's own business. If they choose to share it, that's nice. But why is it seemingly acceptable for these magazines to go snooping around? We complain about loss of privacy in other aspects of life, why not this one?