Forums >Off the Beaten Path>How much do professional runners get paid?
Tiefsa
Do they get paid per event they run? Do they get paid just from their sponsors?
How much would a good runner like Ryan Hall or Kara Goucher get paid compared to someone that isn't running as well - Lets say like Alan Webb?
I asked this question in letsrun too, but they are usually mean over their with the responses.
Just wondering. Take care - Coach Tief.
Distinctively Juvenile
an amazing likeness
I'm not adding anything specific, but it just happened that the local paper had an article yesterday on someone moving to a professional running career.
It was interesting to read the paragraph that says his new "employer" was the Oregon Track Club. That made it sound like there is some form of base salary, but leaves me uninformed about how the Club gets revenue -- do any race winnings and appearance fees of their runners go to the club?
Article link here.
Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.
I've read that some of the very top American Nike guys like Ritz and Web have $250k/yr contracts. Most make a lot less than that. A sub 4 miler might get $10k a year from his shoe sponsor plus gear. After that it's about winnings and apearance fees.
And it's a lot like golf (but with 1/1000th as much money involved) in that the top guys are doing well but you get down to 7th best in the country and the guy or girl is probably barely scraping by, has a shoe contract that literally covers shoes and gear and maybe some travel money to get to races and works part time as an assistant xc coach or in a running store to make ends meet.
The top elite clubs like Oregon TC have sponsors to cover expenses for their athletes.
Runners run
Menace to Sobriety
Janie, today I quit my job. And then I told my boss to go f*** himself, and then I blackmailed him for almost sixty thousand dollars. Pass the asparagus.
Way less than a washed up, never was, lifetime .210 hitter in his final year of his contract.
you forgot to add, "and still on steroids." TIC
Are you referencing Bill Hall of the Milwaukee Brewers. God I wish he would hit the ball sometime soon. Current average .197 - Current salary $6.9million dollars.
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A number of faster runners in here could bunt their way to that average...and probably take way less money.
San Francisco - 7/29/12
Warrior Dash Ohio II - 8/26/12
Chicago - 10/7/12
One day at a time
MilkTruck, thanks for the link! I was out of town and missed that.
Ben True's a nice guy - he graduated from my kids' high school, and had the same coach my son does now. We ran into him when he was working in a local running store last year, and he took quite a bit of time talking with both my boys - he's their idol.
Member Since 2008
There are ony a handfull of elite runners paid by OTC, There is alot of community support for the group including several with alot of money.
Self anointed title
It seems that the top US runners get paid a lot more than the top Brits, can't speak for the other Europeans.
Partially because we don't have many good runners at the moment and partially because US sportsmen and women tend to be more highly paid than those from any other country.
Paula Radcliffe has earned a multi million pound fortune. But then, she has run a marathon 3 minutes faster than any other woman in history. She has, at times, been the fastest marathoner in Britain.... man or woman. That mainly because our men are rubbish, but still a great achievement.
The second best female marathoner in Britain earns v little, sometimes nothing, from her running.
It is not a great career choice.
------------------------------------- 5K - 18:25 - 3/19/11 10K - 39:38 - 12/13/09 1/2 - 1:29:38 - 5/30/10 Full - 3:45:40 - 5/27/07
As others have said, those at the very top make a nice living, but the fall-off is dramatic.
People like Hall, Radcliffe and Wanjiru will get $100k -$200k appearance fee for major marathons, and can earn another $200k or more dependent on performance and setting a new course record. While not published, the appearance fee budget for London was estimated at over $2m.
Whether an athlete is "hot" or economic conditions will also play a role. The London marathon after her world record run I think Paula got close to $500k just for showing up. Next one, probably not so much. And the appearance fee pot was apparently much smaller this year.
The process is the goal.
Men heap together the mistakes of their lives, and create a monster they call Destiny.
I'm certainly far from a pro, but my lifetime winnings, to date, total a visor, draw-string bag, gymbag, 12-pack of beer and pint glass. That doesn't even take into the account my full week's worth (and more) of tech shirts just for registering, and some other odds and ends from post-race raffles. So hey, even at an amateur level you can make out pretty well!
When you look at it that way, It makes me feel like I am a professional any time I enter a race.
Whether an athlete is "hot"
I know several smokin hot female runners. And they don't make squat. Oh well.
except you paid more to enter then the crap is worth. sort of the Bob Uecker school of being a professional. As in his old joke about the $3,500 signing bonus he agreed to when he signed his first contract back in 1956. "My old man whistled and said darn that's a lot of money to scrape together but if it gets my kid out of the house..."