Does a professional American distance runner make enough money in their career to retire off?

Probably a few American runners made enough to potentially retire. I would guess some of the following runners made over a million in their career, but probably need closer to 2-3 million or more to retire in your 30s.

Webb and Rupp are top two that come to mind, maybe for Webb and Rupp probably has made bank over his career. Somebody like Symmonds that had a long career and performed well probably made some cash as well.

Shalane and Des probably have because of long careers, multiple Olympics each, and winning a major marathon.

95% of the population (pulled that number out of my ass) has to work their whole lives to be able to retire at age 55 to 65 years. Why should we expect that pro runners to be any different. So what if they retire from running at 30 yrs or even 40 yrs of age and find that they have to keep working to live. That is same as almost everyone else. Runners should be thinking ahead to what they are going to do after their first career is done. If they planned well, they may jump into a second career that is financially and emotionally satisfying and work at that for another 30 yrs until real retirement comes around.

In regards to college coaching:

All salaries from public universities are public knowledge and easily accessible...just give it a Google.

For example, I found that UNL (which is nothing special in either xc or track) pays the following...

Harris(XC): 77000

Peppin(Track): 250000

Can't say that is too bad considering I don't believe either is a professor.

the thing about being a pro runner is that it'll qualify you for being a cross country/track coach at any D1 High School or Colleges that are looking for coaches. you won't even need any coaching experience. just show the head of the school your wikipedia page and you'll be hired. you can probably even have multiple jobs. example: you coach a HS team from 3:30pm to 5:00pm or 6:00pm, and then you can also coach a local track club or a college team in the evening. easy money.

Meb probably does, though he has expressed an interest in coaching down the line. He owns/owned multiple properties in CA so he has that plus probably other smart investments brewing. If he's okay with the travel, he could probably do the Frank Shorter/Bill Rodgers retirement gig and speak at 20+ race expos per year and do just fine for a decade if not longer.

Sadly Suzy Favor Hamilton's situation is an indicator of how well top runners struggle. And have to turn to side gigs to make ends meet.

NotPC wrote:

Then you're 40 years old, still renting, no reliable car, no retirement, no savings.

Nothing wrong with renting depending on your metropolitan area. I'm sure a lot of Manhattanites (we're talking millions of people) rent only. Unless you're a mega millionaire who can buy an entire penthouse most Manhattanites rent for life...and don't drive a car.

NotPC wrote:

Then you're 40 years old, still renting, no reliable car, no retirement, no savings.

This is only a problem if you have kids. If you do, then you're better off having a house to leave them something behind.

boardmangetspaid wrote:

Mick Byrne made just over $153,000 in 2017. Of course, Mick coaches TF and XC for both men and women.

That's quite a steal. Assuming that that $153K is the base salary and not the total package of performance bonuses. Basically you could be a mediorce coach and still get a doctor's salary.

Some years back, I knew a guy who said he could combine federal civil service job time with military time for pension purposes. If that is true now, there are options for those who do not get the 20 years of military career.

This is in USA. I do not know about the many other American countries in this regard.

Honestly, I think the only recognizable name by most people in tat list is Usain Bolt. Maybe some old timers an remember Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter. No one from the era will forget Mary Decker.

This is fabulous! A thread often populated by speculators who don't know f*cking sh*t about the private finances of most runners.

Oh yeah, let me tell you about how many burritos Donald Trump eats per month. As if I know??? The same applies to this thread and pretending to know what kind of money people make.

Stupid, stupid know-it-alls who knoweth not what they spout...

For most, the answer has to be no. Someone like Flanagan, sure. I don't know what kind of benefits she had access to at Nike but most probably don't get anything close to that. A lot have to supplement with coaching while they're running professionally. If you've dropped a decent time or two you can put up an online coaching system for about $100/month and take on 10ish people. That's super common. High school coaching works if you're already a teacher. College coaching can work if you find a big program. You can find some livable assistant coach jobs in the 30-60 range. You can also find them on a volunteer basis or for a couple thousand a season. Head coaches, depending on where you are, can do just fine.

Martin Smith earns $250k base salary per year.

When I was a coach I made 250/season, so 500/year since we didn't have indoor track. Wasn't even enough to cover gas but I would have done it for free so I didn't really care.

To clarify this was high school and I was a teacher at the school at the time.

No. Not from just running such as prize money and being sponsored. They would have to turn that into something else like coaching which was what Alberto Salazar did. Oh, wait a minute......nevermind.

NERunner053 wrote:

For most, the answer has to be no. Someone like Flanagan, sure. I don't know what kind of benefits she had access to at Nike but most probably don't get anything close to that. .

Most professional american distance runners aren't good. We are not talking about . lot of people who are threats to win gold medals, diamond league meets, and so on. There is maybe a dozen people in the US that fall into that group (depends a bit on if you count the 800m or not) and not many of them put in 8-10 years. Jared Wared for example is definitely a solid runner. But do you think someone with a 2:11:30 PR on a nonAided course should expect to be saving the 2 million or so (about the same as 100k/year job) to retiree at the end of their career? Probably not.

People like Centro, rupp and Flanagan might be close. You got to figure their contracts were better than Berian's (i.e. one of the few ones we have seen published) and between shoe contracts, prize money and appearence fees making 300-400k doesn't seem to absurd. Pay 200k in taxes (yes that is a very high estimate), spend 100k, and save 100k and after 10 years you will be close to 2 million if the markets are nice to you.

But again we are talking super stars and even then only the few that make it 10 years. Thats not a lot of people.