“Sometimes I didn’t know the amount of the prize money”
Evgenia Medvedeva, the renowned Russian figure skater and two time world champion, discussed her earnings from her professional skating years.
“I think I won 24,000 dollars for first place at the World Championships. It sounds like a substantial amount, yet it doesn’t stretch life indefinitely,” she stated in an interview on the Forbes YouTube channel.
Using today’s exchange rates, that sum equals about 1.4 million rubles. She also noted that while entering a tournament she did not always know the exact prize fund and would sometimes have to search online for the numbers.
“I’m not jealous of the players”
For socialbites.ca, the interpretation of Medvedeva’s remarks came from Maria Butyrskaya, the first Russian woman to win the world title in 1999.
“From my era, the money was not drastically different. We held civil service jobs. The only thing I do not recall is the European Championship payout. The World Championship I won carried a prize of 50,000 dollars, though taxes varied by country. In the United States and Canada taxes could reach around 30 percent. The federation then took 10 percent of the remaining amount, and after that the coaches were paid a 30 percent share. I always had a rough sense of the numbers, but exact sums depended on where the events happened. A Grand Prix stage typically cost around 30,000 dollars to win, and Europe perhaps around 20,000. Something like that,” Butyrskaya explained.
She noted that Medvedeva’s figure was the amount after all deductions. “Grand Prix stages generally came out clean at about 13,000 dollars,” she added.
Butyrskaya, often considered the first Russian world champion in these discussions, touched on how football salaries are perceived in contrast with skating earnings.
“Figure skating cannot be directly compared to football. There are many different stories. Football draws more attention than figure skating. People should mind their own business about earnings. Skaters seldom complain, especially since they perform in shows and secure endorsements in addition to competition. The real way to earn is to reach the top three, because finishing fifth or sixth at the World Cup means little,” she stated.
modern money
When looking at earnings for contemporary skaters, most prize figures are publicly available. In the Grand Prix series, each stage carries a prize fund of 180,000 dollars, so the winner receives 18,000 dollars. In the final round, the top six earners see the stakes rise. A victory pays 25,000 dollars, while the last place pays 3,000 dollars. The entire Grand Prix series prize pool sums to 272,000 dollars.
At the World Championships held in Stockholm last year, the prize fund stood at 868,000 dollars. The gold medallist in both the men’s and women’s categories received 64,000 dollars each, silver medals earned 47,000 dollars, third place 33,000 dollars, fourth place 19,000 dollars, fifth place 11,000 dollars, and sixth place 8,000 dollars each. The ice dance and pairs events carried a combined prize pool of 252,000 dollars. The top prize for a winning couple was 90,000 dollars, with 65,000 dollars for second, 45,000 dollars for third, 26,000 dollars for fourth, and 26,000 dollars for fifth, while sixth place earned 10,000 dollars.
In these discussions, Russian skaters again claimed medals across multiple disciplines. Anna Shcherbakova, Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov, and Victoria Sinitsyna with Nikita Katsalapov stood out among the winners. Other notable results came from Dmitry Kozlovsky, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, Alexander Trusova, and Alexander Boikov. Additionally, Mikhail Kolyada made the top six in men’s, Evgeny Tarasov and Vladimir Morozov excelled in pairs, and Alexandra Stepanova with Ivan Bukin shined in ice dancing.
Source attributions note that figures vary by country and event type, with show performances and sponsorships contributing to overall earnings for skaters beyond prize money. The landscape today shows robust prizes in major circuits with continued public interest in the sport.