The quadruple payment is red: how Kondratyuk became the highest paid figure skater in the world

Most Russian athletes in Olympic sports cannot boast of high salaries. Every now and then there are stories of how young guys are forced to earn extra money by hiring couriers or taxi drivers. Only football players and hockey players stand out against this background, but their earnings are noticeably lower than those of foreign athletes of a comparable level. But in figure skating, it turned out to reverse this trend. And, as calculations by Sport-Express and Izvestia show, the prize amounts of Russian figure skaters per season are comparable, and in some places higher, than those of their foreign counterparts. This means that the sport as an industry is better developed in Russia than anywhere else abroad.

Kondratyuk's record

Recently, Forbes Sport published figures according to which Mark Kondratyuk overtook Ilya Malinin in the amount of prize money earned for the season. After the "Russian Challenge", in which Mark alone earned 8.75 million rubles, this situation was a secret of Greatness, but the fact itself is surprising. At Sport-Express and Izvestia, according to our own calculations, we got slightly different figures, as it seems to us, more accurate, and even the group of leaders has changed somewhat. But the point is the same — Russians earn at the level of foreigners.

We took into account all Russian tournaments, the Commonwealth Cup in Belarus, in which Pyotr Gumennik participated, and in team tournaments we divided the total prize pool by the number of people in the team (10 in the jumping championship and 12 in the Channel One Cup).

The winners of the Russian championship, for example, earn 2.5 million rubles, 1.5 million and 1 million. But the main tidbit was the Russian Challenge show program tournament, organized by Channel One. Thanks to the new counting system, several of the most successful participants accumulated prize money, and Mark Kondratyuk, who earned 2.5 million during the season, increased the prize money by 8.75 million at once. He won both the overall standings, and, logically, was highly rated in each of the three nominations — by the jury from the art world, former figure skaters and the audience, for which he added bonuses to himself.

It should be noted that on April 6 at 12:15 on the same First Channel there will be a broadcast of the first—ever tournament on the ice of Lake Baikal (recorded in advance in February) - and the distribution of prizes is possible there. The fate of 20 million rubles in the virtual Champions League, in which skaters are divided into six conditional teams and perform various challenges, also remains unclear. According to our information, it will continue in the coming months. In previous seasons, the most successful Russian figure skaters were paid another 1-5 million each according to the results of the season rating, but this year we haven't heard about such an option.

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This year's Channel One Cup turned out to be fun, especially due to the additional contests.

It should be noted that skaters do not actually receive the entire amount — for example, it is customary to pay a portion to a coach or choreographer. The prize money received in the official competitions of the federation is not subject to taxes, according to Article 217 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

The evaluation of the prize money received by Russian figure skaters is as follows (the amount in rubles).

1. Mark Kondratyuk – 11 333 333

2. Dmitry Aliyev – 6,466,667

3. Adelia Petrosyan – 6,300,000

4. Vladislav Dikidzhi – 5,333,333

5. Peter Gumennik – 3,633,333

6. Alina Gorbacheva – 3 383 333

7-8. Anastasia Mishina – 3,250,000

7-8. Alexander Gallyamov – 3,250,000

9. Evgeny Semenenko – 3 116 667

10. Gleb Lutfullin – 3 083 333

What's in the world?

It cannot be said that there is the same upward trend in the world in terms of finance. In previous years, the best Russian figure skaters also earned more than their counterparts abroad, especially in ice shows, and the International Skating Union (ISU) does not increase prize money at its competitions.

The data on the prize money of foreign athletes is as follows (the amount in rubles in parentheses).

1. Ilya Malinin – $125,900 (10,642,327)

2. Kaori Sakamoto – $95,900 (8,106,427)

3. Mikhail Shaidorov – $89,800 (7,590,794)

4-5. Riku Miura – $85,850 (7,256,900)

4-5. Ryuichi Kihara – $85,850 (7,256,900)

6-7. Madison Chock – $84,350 (7,130,105)

6-7. Evan Bates – $84,350 (7,130,105)

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So, in the 2016/17 season, Ashley Wagner and Elena Radionova competed at the Grand Prix stages for the same $180,000 prize pool as they did almost 10 years later, despite inflation. In the 2018/19 season, Alina Zagitova was the best, earning $134 thousand. Last year, the leader was Kaori Sakamoto ($129,400). As you can see, as the years go by, even the most successful figure skaters in the world don't change their money. This also speaks volumes from the point of view of sports development.

If the prize money of skaters needs to be searched and added manually, then skiers, for example, have a public calculation on the FIS website. The best skier of the season, Swiss Marco Odermatt, earned 725,640 Swiss francs— or about $840,000. As they say, feel the difference. The best skier Johannes Klebo received about $340 thousand in prize money. The prize money of ski jumpers is higher than that of figure skaters.

Figure skaters are moving closer to snowboarders and representatives of freestyle skiing — this is a real position in the world hierarchy. Not to mention that there are more Olympic medals being awarded in all of the above sports, now even in ski jumping. There is something to think about.