What it costs to be an elite figure skater like the 'Quad God'

Summary

The Indicator from Planet Money

Episode: What it costs to be an elite figure skater like the 'Quad God'

Date: February 12, 2026
Hosts: Waylon Wong (Indicator/NPR), Lillian Carbake (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
Featuring: Timothy Gable, Ashley Wagner, Danny O'Shea

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the substantial financial costs required to become an elite figure skater in the United States, with a spotlight on Olympic-level athletes like "Quad God" Ilya Malinin. Through interviews with medal-winning skaters and economics reporter Lillian Carbake, listeners get a breakdown of skating expenses, why talent alone isn't enough, and how the economics of the sport shape who reaches the Olympic stage.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Sky-High Costs: The $1 Million Indicator

• The central theme: Making it to the Olympics as a figure skater in the U.S. can easily cost about $1 million.
  • [01:07] Waylon Wong: "That leads us to today's indicator, which is $1 million. That's right. It can cost an average of $1 million to make the Olympics."
  • [01:26] Timothy Gable: "Pretty daunting. It is a million dollar bet on like a maybe of a maybe..."

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2. When Costs Begin: The Family Investment in Skating

• Skaters often start with group lessons, but costs skyrocket when they move to private coaching and competitive jumps.

  • [03:02] Lillian Carbake: "...once you start jumping doubles and competing locally, I needed a private coach. And that's pretty standard for most skaters. It's also when the expenses start to explode."

• In the U.S., families pay for nearly everything until skaters hit international competitions:

  • [03:27] Lillian Carbake: "Here in the US it's your family that picks up the bill."
  • [03:35] Ashley Wagner: "In the US: Astronomically unaffordable. I was told by my parents that I could do literally any other sport other than equestrian because that's how exactly expensive figure skating was."

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3. The Equipment Tally: Knives, Boots, and Beyond

• High-caliber skates and blades can cost upwards of $2,000.
  • [04:09] Ashley Wagner: "Blades can run up to $1,000. And then the skate boots... another $1,000, $1,500."
  • But, as noted, "boots don't get you to a million dollars."
  • Real costs hit with ice time and coaching, which can be over $90 a day, 5+ days a week.
    • [05:29] Timothy Gable: "...looking at $90 a day. For ice time a minimum of five days a week."
    • [05:42] Ashley Wagner: "Our lesson would be about 120 bucks. And then you have probably two or three hours of lessons a day..."

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4. Elite Access: The Heritage & Geography of Opportunity

• There's a trend of Olympic skaters being the children of other elite skaters or coaches, giving them advantages like extensive, early ice time.

  • [04:24] Lillian Carbake: "...three Team USA skaters this year had parents who were Olympians."
  • [04:46] Lillian Carbake: "But not genetically, financially. That's because if your parents are Olympic level coaches, you're getting free top tier training from the time that you're very tiny."
  • Ilya Malinin landed quadruple jumps at 13 because he "grew up in the rink" while his parents coached.

• Families sometimes relocate for better training, a massive additional expense.

  • [06:06] Timothy Gable: "Your family or whomever has to spend a boatload of money just to get you kind of in the mix."

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5. Delayed or Limited Financial Support

• U.S. Figure Skating only provides funding once skaters qualify for international junior competitions, typically in their teens.

  • [06:17] Lillian Carbake: "Its funding doesn't usually kick in until you're competing internationally at the junior level in your teens."
  • Even then, compensation is limited: top-ranked skaters receive about $20,000 per season, but one program’s choreography can cost up to $15,000.
    • [07:07] Ashley Wagner: "...a program to get choreographed can cost $10,000 to $15,000. So you can have your entire funding almost dried up from just one program."

• Families must cover travel costs for skaters and their coaches/chaperones (about $10,000+ a season) until the athlete reaches a level where governing bodies help.

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6. The Hidden Costs: Choreography & Costuming

• Costume and choreography are competitive necessities, not frills.
  • [07:44] Waylon Wong: "Choreography and costuming is not extra. They are competitive tools."
  • Costumes can be $2,000–$5,000 each, with skaters needing at least two per season.
    • [07:57] Ashley Wagner: "Oh, anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000."
• Pair skating has even stranger economics:
  • [08:13] Lillian Carbake: "There's this massive gender imbalance in the sport. There's roughly One girl for every 200 boys."
  • Girls' families often end up subsidizing their male partners' training costs, living expenses, or even citizenship processes.

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7. Prize Money & Sponsorship: Not the Solution

• Top international prize: Grand Prix Final champion gets $25,000.

  • [08:55] Lillian Carbake: "...the Grand Prix final champion wins $25,000."
  • Not enough given that a single routine’s choreography/costume can equal or surpass this sum.
  • Coaches often take a 15% cut of prize money.
    • [09:06] Lillian Carbake: "Many coaches actually take 15% of an athlete's prize money."

• Sponsorship opportunities spike during the Olympics, but they're rare and sometimes ethically fraught:

  • [09:41] Ashley Wagner: "The money that they offer you is obscene. And when you're in a sport that is obscenely expensive, it makes sense. It [is] very hard to turn away from that. Does it feel ethical? Not in the slightest. But it's very obvious why it exists in this sport. And why athletes take those sponsorships."

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8. Why They Skate: Beyond the Money

• Most skaters, even Olympic medalists, do not break even; their drive is about love of the sport and sharing their art, not financial return.
  • [09:59] Lillian Carbake (about Danny O’Shea): "...he just helped the USA win gold in the team event... but he said most Olympic figure skaters are not doing this for the financial reward. The reward is internal. And in how we're able to share what we love. A sport that we love, an art that we love with so many people. And maybe inspire others to go after their dreams as well."

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the staggering costs:
  • "It is a million dollar bet on a maybe of a maybe..." – Timothy Gable ([01:26])
• On family sacrifices:
  • "I was told by my parents that I could do literally any other sport other than equestrian because that's how exactly expensive figure skating was." – Ashley Wagner ([03:35])
• On sponsorship ethics:
  • "Does it feel ethical? Not in the slightest. But it's very obvious why it exists in this sport..." – Ashley Wagner ([09:41])
• On motivation:
  • "The reward is internal. And in how we're able to share... what we love..." – Paraphrased from Danny O’Shea ([10:00])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• The Million Dollar Bar: [01:07]
• Equipment & Early Costs: [04:09]–[05:42]
• Inherited Opportunity & Ice Time: [04:24]–[05:11]
• Governing Body Support/Limitations: [06:17]
• The Hidden Price of Choreography/Costumes: [07:07]–[07:57]
• Gender Imbalance & Pair Dynamics: [08:13]–[08:48]
• Prize Money & The Lure of Sponsorships: [08:55]–[09:41]
• Why They Truly Skate: [09:59]–[10:31]

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Episode Tone & Language

The conversation is lighthearted, witty, and candid—balancing economic analysis with a genuine affection for the artistry and challenges of figure skating. Insights are peppered with humor ("knife shoes," "It's a supply side problem"), but there’s also a sobering realism about who gets a shot at Olympic glory.

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For Listeners: Why This Matters

• Figure skating’s hefty price tag means Olympic dreams are heavily gated by family resources.
• The episode highlights systemic disparities in access to elite training—paralleling broader conversations about both the economics of youth sports and the American approach to funding Olympic hopefuls.
• Ultimately, it’s a story about passion, grit, and the unseen costs behind those dazzling routines.

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Recommended if you’re curious about:

• The true price of Olympic sports in America
• Hidden inequalities in youth and amateur athletics
• The stories behind this year’s Olympic skaters

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Transcript

[Lillian Carbake]

Npr.

[Waylon Wong]

This is the Indicator from Planet Money. I'm Waylon Wong here at the Indicator. We've been following the Winter Olympics and you know, I, like many other people, love figure skating. I love the ice dancing. I like the short program. I like the free skate. I like the twizzles. I like the lifts. So we have invited Oregon Public Broadcasting's Lillian Carbake on to help us understand what it actually costs to get to the Olympics as a figure skater.

[Lillian Carbake]

Hi, Waylon. I'm so excited to be here. I am primarily an economics reporter, so it is such a delight to have two weeks every four years where I get to talk about knife shoes instead.

[Waylon Wong]

This is your moment to shine in a slightly different way than how you usually shine. So will we get to see you at the Olympics this week?

[Lillian Carbake]

Absolutely not. I did skate competitively, but I didn't really realize how expensive it was going to get when I started.

[Waylon Wong]

And that leads us to today's indicator, which is $1 million. That's right. It can cost an average of $1 million to make the Olympics.

[Lillian Carbake]

That's Timothy Gable's estimate. He he won an Olympic Bronze medal in 2002.

[Timothy Gable]

Pretty daunting. It is a million dollar bet on like a maybe of a maybe of.

[Waylon Wong]

A maybe after the break, how the costs grow as skaters climb the ranks. We talk to three US Olympic medalists on how top skaters, like most Olympic athletes, aren't breaking even.

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[Waylon Wong]

Okay, Lillian, walk me through this. A kid starts ice skating, where does the money really start to kick In?

[Lillian Carbake]

Well, when I started, I did group lessons through the single jumps pretty much. And then once you start jumping doubles and competing locally, I needed a private coach. And that's pretty standard for most skaters. It's also when the expenses start to explode.

[Waylon Wong]

Right. So last week we talked about how the US Is fairly unique because unlike other countries, it doesn't invest federal taxpayer money in youth athletics or Olympic development.

[Lillian Carbake]

Yep. Here in the US it's your family that picks up the bill. And this is how 2014 Olympic bronze medalist Ashley Wagner described figure skating here.

[Ashley Wagner]

In the US Astronomically unaffordable. I was told by my parents that I could do literally any other sport other than equestrian because that's how exactly expensive figure skating was.

[Waylon Wong]

Okay, so let's stay away from equestrian expenses. But sports are getting expensive for everyone. In ice skating though, it's a whole different knife, shoe game.

[Lillian Carbake]

Yeah. I mean, part of that has to do with the knife shoes. The equipment is expensive. Once you start landing double jumps or doing lifts, you need skates that can withstand that force.

[Ashley Wagner]

Blades can run up to $1,000. And then the skateboard gates that these athletes are on another thousand dollars, $1,500.

[Waylon Wong]

I'm hearing the cash register sounds, we're at about what, like $2,000. But $2,000 boots don't get you to a million dollars.

[Lillian Carbake]

Yeah. So the real sink is ice time and coaching, and that's where you can start to see who can move up the levels and who can't. It's not a coincidence that the U.S. men's Olympic team includes several skaters whose parents were elite skaters themselves. They three Team USA skaters this year had parents who were Olympians.

[Waylon Wong]

So you could almost say that being an Olympic skater is hereditary.

[Lillian Carbake]

Right. But not genetically, financially. That's because if your parents are Olympic level coaches, you're getting free top tier training from the time that you're very tiny. Take Ilya Malinin. He is the 21 year old gold medal favorite. He does the quadruple axel, something that experts used to think was physically impossible until he did it.

[Waylon Wong]

I saw him wearing his tank top that says quad God.

[Lillian Carbake]

He has like a lot of shirts to say quad God. Here's the thing. He grew up in the rink while his parents coached. That much ice time is part of the reason he was landing quadruple jumps at 13 years old. Bronze medalist Timothy Gable said most skaters are paying for every minute they're on.

[Timothy Gable]

The ice just to go and have a normal training day. You're looking at $90 a day. For ice time a minimum of five days a week.

[Lillian Carbake]

And Ashley says that doesn't even include coaching.

[Ashley Wagner]

Our lesson would be about 120 bucks. And then you have probably two or three hours of lessons a day. It gets expensive really quickly.

[Lillian Carbake]

And also as skaters get better, many have to move to train with high level coaches. And that sometimes means moving states or. Or even across the world. Timothy Gable and his mom moved states when he was 11 years old.

[Timothy Gable]

Your family or whomever has to spend a boatload of money just to get you kind of in the mix.

[Waylon Wong]

And all of this is before meaningful financial help from U.S. figure skating.

[Lillian Carbake]

Yeah. So U.S. figure skating is the sport's national governing body. And its funding doesn't usually kick in until you're competing internationally at the junior level in your teens.

[Waylon Wong]

Until then, it's entirely on the family. They have to pay for travel to competitions, by the way. That includes coaches, flights and rooms. And then on top of that, they have to cover a chaperone's expenses just.

[Timothy Gable]

To qualify for a nationals, let alone an international. The travel expenses in a given season can be 10,000 out of pocket, if not more. Now, once our. Once our athletes do qualify for, for the majority of internationals, US Figure Skating is paying for that.

[Lillian Carbake]

So US Figure skating will assign funding to these skaters based on their world ranking. The junior skaters get less, but our top ranked US figure skaters get about $20,000 per season.

[Ashley Wagner]

According to Ashley, that money goes so fast, a program to get choreographed can cost $10,000 to $15,000. So you can have your entire funding almost dried up from just one program. And that's supposed to last you the. The entire season.

[Waylon Wong]

Okay, it is time to talk choreography.

[Lillian Carbake]

Yeah. This is a judge sport, so the choreography and the costumes can genuinely make or break a skater's ability to move up the ranks. Like, judges aren't just looking at whether or not you land jumps. They're evaluating musicality, interpretation, how convincingly a skater sells a program.

[Waylon Wong]

That means choreography and costuming is not extra. They are competitive tools. And let's not forget all that tool the sparkly costumes. They matter a lot, and they cost a lot once you make it to the higher levels.

[Ashley Wagner]

Oh, anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000.

[Lillian Carbake]

Yeah. And that's just for a single competition dress. And skaters need at least two costumes per season.

[Waylon Wong]

Then you double that number in pairs and ice dance.

[Lillian Carbake]

Okay. Pairs and ice dance is where the economics start to get really strange. That's because there's this massive gender imbalance in the sport. There's roughly One girl for every 200 boys.

[Waylon Wong]

In economics, we call that a supply side problem.

[Lillian Carbake]

It is a supply side problem. And that low supply means girls and their families often end up subsidizing boys. It's extremely common for the families of female figure skaters. To pay not just for training. But for their male partners. Living expenses, housing, coaching and ice time. And sometimes citizenship expenses. Because skaters often change countries.

[Waylon Wong]

Once skaters reach international competitions. They earn prize money. But it's nowhere near enough to offset all those costs.

[Lillian Carbake]

Yeah. So at the very top of the sport. The Grand Prix final champion wins $25,000.

[Waylon Wong]

Okay, now that did sound like a lot of money. Until I heard about how much choreography and costumes cost.

[Lillian Carbake]

And let's not forget, many coaches actually take 15% of an athlete's prize money. But the prize money is just one piece. Let's talk about sponsorship. This is why the Olympics is so important financially to figure skaters. The game gives a niche sport a global audience. And with that comes big money.

[Waylon Wong]

Yes, I have seen all these commercials with figure skaters in them this Olympics. Especially for medication. So many pharmaceuticals.

[Lillian Carbake]

I know. How American is that, right? But Ashley says it's very tempting to take that money when it's available. When the Olympic spotlight is on them.

[Ashley Wagner]

The money that they offer you is obscene. And when you're in a sport that is obscenely expensive, it makes sense. It very hard to turn away from that. Does it feel ethical? Not in the slightest. But it's very obvious why it exists in this sport. And why athletes take those sponsorships.

[Lillian Carbake]

Pair skater Danny o' Shea might take advantage of those sponsorships now that he's at the Olympics. Especially because he just helped the USA Win gold in the team event with his partner, Ellie Cam. But he said most Olympic figure skaters are not doing this for the financial reward. The reward is internal. And in how we're able to share what we love. A sport that we love, an art that we love with so many people. And maybe inspire others to go after their dreams as well.

[Waylon Wong]

Well, Lillian, you had those dreams maybe once upon a time. Right before you turned to more practical pursuits.

[Lillian Carbake]

Yes. Now I skate in a mall, and it costs $4 an hour, so. But I won't be in the Olympics anytime soon.

[Waylon Wong]

But you can get yourself a Wetzel Spritzel after you practice. It's true.

[Lillian Carbake]

It's Auntie Anne's, actually. Okay.

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