Consider Your Reality and Know You Have Options

Photo: Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images

Managing the cost of ski racing is possible. However, while ski academy tuition may be a drop in the bucket for some families, the price is huge for many. On February 18, 2022, the Wall Street Journal published an article titled – “U.S. Alpine Ski Racing’s $500,000 Per Kid Problem”. The report reveals that athletes and their parents must consider the costs of pursuing a ski racing career honestly. Since my “real job” is in financial services, I think it’s valuable to help parents understand what they will face.

Family Budgeting

If a family’s household income is $200,000 per year, that is in the top 10% of American wage earners. However, deduct federal, state, FICA, health insurance, and other deductions, and the actual take-home income in that bracket is about $135,000 per year. Therefore, if we look at two top ski academies, one in the East and one in the West, the full-year boarding tuition for the 2022-23 academic year is just over $62,000, or about 46% of the family’s annual net income.
A good financial planner will tell their clients not to spend more than 25-30% of their income on their home mortgage. They will recommend families not spend more than 35-40% on all combined debt, including cars, boats, student loans, etc. This recommendation doesn’t even factor in retirement and college saving contributions. While many ski academies offer financial aid, what happens when a family has two or three kids racing? Having multiple kids competing can make the ski academy option problematic. These economic challenges are the reality even for many well-intentioned upper-income parents.

My analysis does not aim to discourage ski racers from attending a ski academy program. I am, however, suggesting that parents and their athlete kids have frank discussions regarding the potential costs and the reality of their goals. For example, if an athlete’s goal is to race at the NCAA level, they must also understand there are hurdles.

NCAA Skiing is Amazing but has Realities

Currently, there are two NCAA divisions with EISA (14 schools) and RMISA (8 schools), equaling 22 programs. Since each team usually starts six skiers per gender, roughly 264 NCAA start spots exist nationally. Now factor in the foreign athletes, including our Canadian neighbors, occupying many of the NCAA start spots. Quickly the number of positions for U.S. athletes becomes even smaller. Also, when you are making a plan and budgeting, consider that some NCAA schools do not offer athletic scholarships.

Sure, other sports like golf are expensive, but the NCAA has over 800 teams on the links.

Good Alternative are Available

The good news is there are many very affordable clubs throughout the country with excellent training and coaching with costs ranging from less than $1,000 to $5,000 plus. These options make managing the cost of ski racing possible. Grassroots club programs in the United States have many of the same facilities and training equipment (designated training hill, timing, gates, B-net, etc.) as the most exclusive academy programs. Skiing under the lights after school is one way families can significantly reduce costs. I trained out of Song Mountain in Upstate New York for a couple of seasons and Otto’s race trail is one of the best training facilities. We ski trained in gates at night with a short lift and steep rolling terrain. I experienced more training at Song Mountain in two hours under the lights than many athletes did in a much longer session.

The U.S. development system will eventually find you if you’re exceptionally fast. U.S. Ski Team’s most successful racers have started as members of a wide variety of programs.

Good Personal Experience that Included Collegiate Racing

As both a parent and a coach, I had to factor in the same budgetary framework for my three ski racing kids. While we did consider the ski academy option, they were still able to ski five to six days per week as club athletes. They attended summer camps at Mt. Hood and were on snow by November every year. While NCAA programs are more selective and limited, USCSSA ski racing has stepped up to fill the void for many college racers. All three of my kids went on to race for an outstanding USCSSA team. Even if they had attended a ski academy, they would most likely have ended up skiing for the same college programs. Considering all the options and doing the math was key to keeping ski racing within the family budget.