Parents from North America are sharing their stories on the Chalk Bucket forum:
Level 3 over $5000 / year for tuition/comp fees/leo/etc. (not including travel expenses, spectator entry fees, practice leos, medical fees if she happens to get injured, and thousands of hair ties).
Level 3 $3000 / year. Same girl by level 7 $7000 / year.
Level 4. $7,000 / year. That does not include travel expenses, leotards, grips, etc….
$7-10,000 / year everything included.
Level 7-8. $7500-8000/year. This excludes any entrance fees or meet travel fees, etc. …
At level 9/10 it is very easy to spend above $20k a year
Level 10 around $25k / year
A mom at our gym put it succinctly – if you just put the money you spend on gymnastics from pre-team to Level 10/Elite, your son or daughter would have more than enough money to go to any college or university in the country by the time they turned 18. It is definitely a labor of love, there is very little ROI, even for those who get recruited to compete in college.
Read more – Give it to me straight!
One coach showed me a budget for the career of an Olympian. Cost was over a million dollars thought the parents only paid a small percentage of that.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 
Are any of those costs optional – I mean hair ties?? Girls are likely to go through tonnes of hair ties gymnast or not. Are specific leotards required ie do you have the option of choosing a cheaper leo for training?
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True, it could pay for college. However, many times it gives the athlete the opportunity to actually be able to attend a college of their choice. Had it not been for gymnastics, could that person have gotten into an Ivy League school or even the very competitive state schools? For the majority, no. Even the walk-on athletes who don’t get anything paid for, having priority enrollment into classes, tutors, etc and being part of a team is priceless.
And of course there are all the life skills that are learned by being a highly competitive athlete.
I put two girls through the sport. Wouldn’t change a thing. 🙂
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Thanks Gym mom.
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