Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Being a Pro Swimmer

So how much do the professional marathon swimmers earn for FINA 10KM Marathon Swimming World Cup races? In general (with exceptions), first-place finishers (for both men and women) earn US$2,500, second place earns US$2,000, third place earns $1,500, fourth place earns $1,200, fifth place earns $1,000, sixth place earns $800, seventh place earns $600 and eighth place earns $400.

Photo of Luca Ferretti taken by Giorgio Scala of Deepbluemedia.

Copyright © 2008 by World Open Water Swimming Association

2 comments:

Ahelee said...

Tough to pay the rent - and are these swimmers paid to travel the world for these races Steve?

What kind of promotions and appearances are the "professional swimmers" doing in these locations to build awareness of the sport of open water swimming?

And to promote the upcoming event happening in the city?

Steven Munatones said...

Many of the swimmers are NOT paid to travel the world to these events. However, some swimmers (primarily those individuals on their country's national open water team) are paid to travel to the events. For example, USA Swimming paid the travel expenses for its top open water swimmers to travel to Portugal, England and Brazil for FINA World Cup events. The Russian Federation is another national governing body that covers its top swimmers' expenses.

Once the swimmer is at the World Cup location, his/her expenses (hotel + food) are covered by the local FINA race committee.

For races in South America and Europe, the swimmers do many local promotions and appearances to promote the race. It is the intention of this blog to cover as many of these events as possible. These promotions include autograph-signing sessions, talks, parades and welcome dinners open to the public. In places from Canada to Argentina, the swimmers are truly the focus of local media attention during the week leading up to the pro race.