Reader TTS

Competing on the world stage isn’t cheap for figure skaters. In a new interview with _USA Today_, former Olympian Adam Rippon got candid about the yearly cost of being a figure skater,

revealing that it’s all quite costly. Going through a checklist, Rippon admitted first that “the ice time can be about $1,000 a month.” “The coaching can be anywhere between $1,000 and

$3,000 a month, give or take a few $10,000,” Rippon, 29, continued. “A skating coach on the elite level can be anywhere between $80 and $140 an hour. It’s like the cost of a massage, every

day. Only instead of getting a massage, you get yelled at.” Rippon — who won a bronze Olympic medal with Team USA in 2018 — said, “Then you have programs. To work with a choreographer, the

cheapest program I ever had done was $3,500. On the most expensive side of that, you can get a program done and it costs $10,000.” The former athlete explained that figure skaters have two

programs in a year. Then comes the costumes: “Every costume is about $2,000 because they’re all custom-made,” he told _USA Today_. “Skates, if you get to an elite level, you can get

sponsored through them,” he explained. “Which a sponsorship basically just means free boots. But if you were to buy them outright, the boot is $500, and the blade is $500 or $600. So you’re

looking at an $1,100 shoe.” The grand total? Between and [$70,000] and $120,000 a year for a skater. And, noted Rippon, “Unless you’re in that top six in the world, you aren’t breaking even

… then you need to do competitions [for prize money].” Rippon just released a new memoir _Beautiful on the Outside_, and opened up to _PEOPLE No_w about the process, explaining, “It was

harder than I thought.” “You know, because I’ve like, written an e-mail and a text message that felt like a book. … I’m really grateful I went through the whole process, because not being a

competitive athlete anymore, I feel like a lot of people don’t talk about that transition.”