Olympian Shaun White was shocked when he first earned $1 million as a bona fide skilled athlete.
“I used to be so baffled by it. I used to be in all probability 14 [and] I had signed my first deal that was north of $1 million,” White, 38, recalled on the Tuesday, July 15, episode of the SoFi “Richer Lives” podcast. “I used to be like, ‘OK, in order that’s good.’ I’d heard that quantity in child strikes, however I by no means actually assumed it was one thing coming my method.”
He continued, “I keep in mind it being, like, not an enormous deal to me. I don’t know why. I keep in mind being like, ‘OK, that’s nice. So, off to the skate park then.’”
White began skateboarding professionally when he was an adolescent. (White notably later discovered success in snowboarding, as effectively.)
“You’ll be able to win competitions, so there’s prize cash there,” White mentioned of his revenue. “Then, you’d mainly do endorsement offers. I rapidly realized that I wouldn’t set myself up for the longer term by simply successful competitions. You can actually do effectively, and plenty of had been, however you wanted to have sponsorships to pay the payments and to set your self up for the longer term.”
White would additionally have the ability to earn cash by means of “photograph incentives” together with his model companions.
“Say I’ve, like, three sponsors [and] every a type of sponsors would have a sure fee for the photograph incentive,” White mentioned. “If I used to be pictured in {a magazine}, you possibly can clip your photograph of that journal, and you’d mail it in. If I had had a web page in {a magazine}, that was price like $500. If I had a small point out, that was price $100 [and] a full cowl was $1,000.”
White additional revealed that competitors prizes solely amounted to “15 p.c” of his whole earnings, whereas sponsored offers made up the remaining.
Making it to the Olympics is a feat that numerous athletes dream of their whole lives. After years of blood, sweat and tears, taking part in essentially the most prestigious athletic occasion on this planet is a once-in-a-lifetime second. Some athletes compete one time within the Olympic Video games and hold up their hats, stepping gracefully into retirement. […]
“Many of the cash I made was endorsement offers inside the trade and there have been issues exterior of that trade, as effectively,” he mentioned. “I had an enormous take care of a drink firm or PlayStation. I began to do some issues after I was older, the place I used to be like, ‘Look, I’m flying all the best way right here to do that competitors,’ so I began asking a few of my sponsors to match my prize cash, which helped issues escalate.”
As soon as White’s earnings began including up, he started splurging on luxurious items.
“I used to be shopping for Lamborghinis. I purchased this new home. I had lengthy hair, [and] I used to be actually feeling myself,” he quipped. “It was till, in all probability, my second Olympics [in] 2010 that I actually began to get a grasp of what was happening. I used to be like, ‘OK, it’s time to determine it out.’”
White, who even turned down a handful of seven-figure paydays to maintain his integrity within the sport, in the end retired in 2022 and went on to launch a number of companies of his personal.
“I feel my dream was simply to be comfy and maintain my household,” he pressured on Tuesday. “That was actually the largest aim I had in thoughts.”
