Six figures to kick ass …
Yesterday I posted about Dara Torres’s crazy stretching routine that enables her to kiss ass even in her forties. Then our good friend Bethany responded with the following:
Did you hear that story about how much it costs per day to keep her in shape like that?
If you didn’t, trust me, it might give you a coronary.
-BDawg
So of course I was intrigued, and set out to find out how much it costs. As many of you know, I am all for buying something if it will help (outside of performance enhancing drugs), and have purchased almost every bizarre little gadget from GPS devices, Back Nobbers, Foam Rollers, TP Massage Balls, those ridiculously large yoga balls you sit on, to “The Sock” and everything in between.
However, what I learned, was that it isn’t as simple as watching an infomercial and sending in 4 easy payments. Alex added:
In a nyt article before the Olympics, it said that she spends $100,000 per year for her entourage of stretchers and personal trainers.
$100,000!?!?! That’s crazy. Being your dutiful servant I tracked down the New York Times Article in question, it included this now infamous picture:
Since most people don’t know how to read, present audience excluded of course, everyone just looked at the picture and was amazed that anyone can have a stomach like that, let alone a 41 year old mother. Numerous blog posts popped up railing against using Dara as a role model for women and what she has had to put herself through.
The f-word blog has this to say:
The magazine’s coverage of Torres notes that to achieve her world class performance, Torres employs three coaches (head, sprint and strength), two stretchers, two massage therapists, a chiropractor, and a nanny — at the cost of at least $100,000 a year. The daughter of a doctor, Torres led a privileged childhood life — her childhood home had 10 bathrooms. Her current husband is an Israeli surgeon and she receives considerable funding and financial advantages from her sponsorships from Toyota and Speedo; money she has earned from modeling, TV work and motivational speaking; and a private sponsor for training expenses. For Torres, working out is literally a full-time job and she has the battle scars to prove it. She’s had surgery on her knees, elbows, shoulders, hands and fingers. She is, as her own father describes, not a type-A personality, but rather a “type A + +,” which helps to explain why, while attending the University of Florida in the mid-1980s, Torres earned 28 N.C.A.A. all-American swimming awards — the maximum number during a college career — but she was also bulimic.
You read that right: Torres’s retinue includes a head coach, a sprint coach, a strength coach, two stretchers, two masseuses, a chiropractor and a nanny, at the cost of at least $100,000 per year.
$100,000 a year. More than most families make in a year she spends just to work out. I’m pretty sure I would be a lot better athlete if I could make it my full time job, and was able to burn 100k for all the extra people. But I don’t have illusions that I’d ever be Olympic caliber, but it sure would be fun to have no financial worries and just be able to train and workout and see how good you could actually be.
I think the ideal would actually to be an action movie star. Someone like Matt Damon who make millions per picture and basically has to be in shape for a lot of his roles. Maybe not Matt Damon, since he also has to get fat for some roles, maybe Christian Bale. Yeah, that’s the ticket. I’d like to be like Christian Bale. Come to think of it, Shelley would probably like me to look more like Sr. Bale as well.
So there you have it, if you got a spare 100 grand and a lot of time on your hands, you can get a lot faster.
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Great meeting you and your family on the glacier boat after Humpy’s. You guys have definitely got me thinking outside the California state line for my next marathon(s).
i wish i could work out all day long and not have to have a real job! the best shape i’ve even been in was when i was writing my thesis a couple of years ago. since i didn’t want to be writing my thesis and took every opportunity to procrastinate, i was training for tris and doing at least one work out every day. it was awesome. this is not the case now that i’m done with grad school and am in the real world.
but back to dara, $100k is still mind blowing to me today as it was when i first read that nyt article a few months ago.
Have you ever seen Christian Bale in The Machinist? Good film but awfully scary thin. Completely unhealthy looking. Check it out.
I think $100K is a very low estimate. I will bet that for that many people it is easily $50K a month.
You and I both work for companies based in the same area where Torres employs people. Quite simply, $100K ain’t cutting it.
I’ve thought about this some more. I’m in marketing…this is all spin.
I’ll buy that she spends $100K a year, but that’s not the majority of what is paid out. It’s the phrases you gloss over like, “private sponsor for training expenses.”
Her out of pocket is $100K, but I’m guessing her training expenses are in excess of $1.25 - 1.5 mil a year. Easy.
I’m fixated.
bethany, i totally agree with you. $100k is only $8,333 a month which isn’t that much for so many people. it isn’t like her stretchers only stretcher her once a day. i’m sure that she gets a bunch paid for by private sponsorship.
plus revealing how much it really costs to get her in shape kind of kills the story. i’m sure if i had $1.5 million a year to spend on my training or something like that, i would be a hell lot better of a runner!