FlowbearDummest thread ever, numbers are way off, but Jon Olsson probably has the largest net worth. With Sponsors like Redbull, Hestra, Leo Vegas.com, head and his own company douche bags you can assume he makes decent bank. he's also done ski racing along with freestyle and his YouTube channel is slowly growing.
After a quick google search his net worth is apparently 3 million.
Candide Thovex is in the same ball park
Tanner Hall is supposedly around 1.4 million
Glen Plake 2.5 million surprisingly
Shane McConkey was 500,000
To compare to other sports related to the industry Shaun White is 40 million. I didn't believe this at first but a lot of sites have similar estimates.
Bode Miller 8 million
Got my info from the site. It's based off wiki so probably not accurate but this list is a little more believable. Hopefully this thread can die now!
http://celebritynetworth.wiki/
Celebrity net worth is kind of a joke, I would not trust it. It is sometimes accurate, but take it with a grain of salt. Don't be surprised by Plake though, he and Scott Schmidt were huge in the 80's, pretty much the only guys carrying the freeskiing torch, there was almost no one else. He was a very big deal.
Jon is worth a lot. He is a huge hero in Sweden, one of their biggest athletic stars. People who don't know skiing in Sweden still know Jon. He is a bigger hero their than Tanner or Kenworthy or any of those guys here. I would guess he made 2-3 million a year, a good bit more than Tanner or Simon or those other guys he was battling. Jon was making enough that he moved his base of operations to Monte Carlo, for tax purposes. Monte Carlo is insanely expensive, a shitty 2 bed apartment costs something like 2 million euros, but from what I have heard they essentially have no income tax, so if Jon was making 2 million a year this would save him more than a million a year compared to the taxes in Sweden, which are quite high. It is only worth it to move to Monte Carlo if you are very rich, otherwise it is impossible to afford. Henrik Windstedt, also a big hero in Sweden, did the same thing so he should be killing it too, although not quite as hard as Jon. Monte Carlo is awesome by the way, I partied there last summer at the Grand Casino (a great place to feel like James Bond) and at the Buddha Bar. It is next level stuff, but be prepared to spend some money. I live in Orange County, which is pricey, and a dinner which would be 200$ in OC would be 280$ in Monte Carlo. You have to have some serious money to live there. It would be cool, I ski Mammoth 2-3 weekends a month, which is a lot of driving, and you can get to Alagna Italy from Monte Carlo more quickly than you can get to mammy from OC. I found myself thinking that if I won the lottery I would live in the Alps during the week and party in Monte Carlo on the weekends. Monte Carlo has everything except surf. One can dream.....
But back to the net worth question. The vast majority of pros don't make much. We have to remember that while they might be big heroes to us, most people don't know who they are. Kent Kreitler supposedly made about 200k back in the day, McConkey 300-400. Those numbers are just speculation, they are what I have heard from people who would probably know, but have not actually seen the contracts. Like I said before, I would guess Jon makes 2-3 because he is such a huge star in Sweden. Dane Reynolds was making 3.5 per year before he left Quiksilver, and while surfing is bigger than freeskiing in the U.S. (despite the fact that there are more skiers than surfers), I could certainly see Jon making 3 per year. I know Candide also makes a lot, although I doubt it is quite as much as Jon. I don't know if people really get how huge Jon is in Sweden, and the tax advantages of Monte Carlo mean has is probably saving more than a million a year on taxes he would have to pay in the U.S. or Sweden. Because of this, he might actually be worth 15 million, and I could be being conservative if he has a good financial planner. He could also be worth less, I might be wrong on his salary and he might spend too much, but when you make millions you can really see your net worth explode if you are frugal and invest wisely. The majority of people live not much better than paycheck to paycheck, so they don't have the ability to speculate on stocks and real estate. Jon does, and even if he is conservative he might be worth well more than he has actually made. I hope he has a financial planner. Because of all this I would guess Jon is FAR wealthier than, say, Tanner.
Another guy is Jonny Moseley. He was arguably the best skier in the world at one point, and on the short list of GOAT candidates. He could ski Alaska with Jeremy Jones and Jeremy Nobis, two of the best in the game back in the day, watch TGR's the Realm if you don't believe me. Actually, watch that movie anyway. Moseley also won medals in park, and revolutionized an Olympic discipline. He was huge outside of skiing back in the day, he definitely made millions. I just wish he had not walked away so young. Had he gone back to filming after the 2002 Olympics instead of going to Hollywood he might have done something like Few Words before Candide. Absolutely one of the best skiers ever to step on the planet.
Like I said before though, most people on this website overestimate what these guys make. Jon is really lucky to be from Sweden, in the US he would have made money more like Tanner or Simon. That is still great, but not like what he was able to haul in as one of the only famous Swedish athletes.
