Salary
Average Salary: $20,000
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $834,960
Win the Olympics and you'll have all kinds of opportunities and endorsements. You'll star in ice skating shows and commercials; you'll have book deals, TV appearances, and sport commentator gigs that'll net you millions. Yuna Kim was ranked one of Forbes's richest female athletes, with a net worth around fourteen million.
Even if you come home with silver or bronze, you'll still glide to the top if the sponsors love you. Look at Michelle Kwan, who's worth about eight million. Johnny Weir only won the bronze, but he got his own TV show and is worth ten million.
However, only a handful of skaters make that much. Most skaters have a negative income, meaning it costs them significantly more money to train as a skater than they'll earn. Significantly more. To pull this off, you either need rich parents or a really active GoFundMe account.
You could skate on a cruise ship or with a traveling show like Disney on Ice and make between $500 to $800 a week, depending on the show, your part in it, and your experience level (source). High-end champs make bigger bucks all the way around, but the field is hugely competitive.
Most skaters end up coaching. The rate for private coaches is around twenty bucks per twenty minutes on the low end and increases sharply from there depending on experience with high-level skaters and competitions (source).
However, most coaches are on the lower end of that pay scale. If you're starting out with no coaching experience at all, you'll probably have to start by teaching learn-to-skate classes that'll let you build relationships with future skaters over time.
That coaching salary also doesn't include USFSA or ISI yearly coach fees, insurance fees, and, in many cases, guest coaching fees if you're not on staff at a rink. If you're on staff, you'll have to give a percentage of your income to the rink. And then, of course, there are taxes.