Machka 

Or if you ship them to another country for an event.

jayp410

The purchase price is the cheapest part of owning a horse (much less competing with one), and a decent horse for local competition costs $5K or more (probably much higher for the really good ones). An $800 saddle is cheap - some of the western show saddles go for $5K+. My wife has 7 or 8 saddles (none of which are THAT expensive, but one is around $2500). We spend around $1/day/horse just for shoes...with 4 horses, that's approximately $1400 / year JUST for horse shoes. I don't know, and don't want to know how much my wife spends for feeding, vet bills, chiropractor (for her AND yes, sometimes she uses a chiropractor for the horses!!!). Then there's the truck, horse trailers (2 ... one with living quarters and a smaller one for local travel), and fuel @ 7 MPG to haul them anywhere (that's around $0.60 per mile for gas). Then there are the per-event fees, which are probably a couple hundred per weekend that she competes (that's just at the local level with walking horse events...I'm sure olympic-type eventing has much higher fees). There are also training fees - the owner of the horse typically has someone else train them. Then you've got either board (if not keeping them on your land) or pasture and fence maintenance...neither of which is cheap.

RT

I've heard the Di2 saddles look great, but cabling is a problem...

Northwestrider

Its as expensive as we want it to be, or as inexpensive

Lanterne Rogue

If golf is a sport, then bowling and bocce ball and horseshoes are sports.

If you can do it with beer, then it's not a sport.

If you can do it and look like John Daly, then it's not a sport.

bigbadwullf

Skiing: Bought a pair of $1,200 skis from a sales rep for $450. Barely-used demos. Been on them for 5-6 years. Still the most awesome ski ever made. Dynastar 63 slalom. Lift tickets suck!

Cycling: Bought a new Specialized Allez for $599. While not the most awesome bike ever made, it fills my needs perfectly. No lift tickets Replaced a 20 year old Cannondale R400. Put a compact crank and new tires on the Allez.

Golf: Have a set of KZG ZO Blades(look them up). My brother bought the components and put them together for me for $225 ($1,000 set of clubs) Not a member of any club now . Play when I want to.

Dirt biking: KTM 520. Very awesome bike. Bought it 3 years old for $3,000. They are now around $8,000. It is now 11 years old and on the original clutch. Great bike!

I seem to buy quality items at good prices......and hold on to them.

Shuke

Easily the most expensive. Not only do you need multi-million dollar boathouse/training facilities (Chesapeake Boathouse/High Performance Training Center) you need a couple $50-60k 8s, a couple $30-40k 4+/-/x, then some $20k 2-/x and then a bunch of $10k singles...just to train a team of 20.

Edit: oh throw in $20k of oars, another $1k for cox boxes, a few launches (whatever those run) and $20k in ergs

aprevo15

Damn those specially designed oars. Whatever happened to just simple wooden oars. lol.

Jay-W

...read the OP...

canam73

Not the most expensive. See equestrian. If your talking winter games I can't imagine bobsledding is cheap.

While not Olympic events I agree that auto racing and yacht racing are going to be top dollar. I'll throw out one other that hasn't been mentioned that is expensive even for the 'amateurs':

Air Racing.

Terror_in_pink

figure skating is pretty expensive

Grant.H

Golf, hands down. not only do you spend a few g's on a set of clubs, you always have to buy balls, good ones are around $ 6 each and then you have to pay to play. a good country club can be $5,000 a year or if not your going to be paying between $18-$200 a game

pallen

The cool think about cycling is that you can have just as much fun on a $200 used bike.

canam73

I think the 'per player' cost is going to wash out in a lot of the training/support costs on some of the more popular sports. Take anything on skates. I live not far from a speed skating facility that also has 2 hockey rinks. There are plenty of of open skating sessions and low level competition that defer some of the costs for facility and the elite competitors that train there. I help pay for it. Contrast that with horse jumping or bobsledding. While a few bystanders dabble in it, most people are either serious competitors or just don't f*** with it.

KillerBeagle

I agree with those voting for equestrian sports.
A competitive national-level dressage horse is in the low six figures - internationally competitive in the high six figures or more. Jumpers are even more expensive because they have far more competitions with significant prize money (think Rolex and Mercedes as sponsors).
"Maintenance" is another thing - monthly costs can dwarf purchase prices of less-trained horses. A friend has a horse in training in CA with a US Olympic rider - over $3K/month.
My daughter will be competing for a spot on the US team in the PanAm games this year. Typical yearly expenses for our 3 horses, 1 retired and 2 competing, are in the $20-30K range. That is very low because we keep them at home and do all the training ourselves.
I was hesitating to buy a $400 used carbon frame as an upgrade to my favorite bike, until I remembered that the last pair of custom boots we bought was $1500.

UCIMBZ

here is a good article I found may help clearify the issue a bit.
https://www.pbkblog.com/money-money-m...-cycling/2011/

SBRDude

Those things eat like a horse.

patentcad

Correct.

Grumpy McTrumpy

having paid for coaching, gear, and ice time for a girl who was never even going to go past the local level, and having been friendly with another who competed regionally, and having spoken to a doctor who knew the math for elite-level training for his daughter, I'd think about putting my chips on figure skating as (cumulatively) the most expensive Olympic event.

from the data he gave me, and from what I have been told by some US pro cyclists, I think you could spend the same money on:

A: training one person to compete internationally in figure skating

or

B: financing an entire UCI continental cycling team for two or three years.

Chris R.

Downhill skiing? Really? I ski and raced for years and then taught for years and yes, it's pricey but not way more than cycling or boat racing or equestrian stuff.
How about a breakdown because maybe i'm ignorant...

X-LinkedRider

Anything that goes into the water competitively will cost millions...
Any animal that requires a saddle and can compete will cost close to millions if not millions...

One million dollars buys a lot of doping sessions about a dozen top end race bikes and leaves you with plenty of money for food.

Velo Vol 

Do athletes that make the Olympic team even pay for much of their stuff/use of training facilities? Or does the USOC cover that?

terencesailing

I can testify to that. Olympic sailing is extremely expensive especially the lead up to the games. But i'm not gonna say it's the most expensive sport outright though. Can't comment on how much horses cost.

UCIMBZ

The Elliott 6m is one of the Olympic official boats and it costs about $30K while supporting 4-6 sailors for a ralatively short event. Training and support costs aside, what are the other sporting events, in which, every player is in competition for 3 weeks the whole time while on a $10K equipment wearing $2-3K worth of gear and having at least 4-5 backups of the same.

Lanterne Rogue

False. Especially if you shop off-season.

K2 Coombas or BD Kilowatts: $500
Dynafit FT 12s: $500
Dynafit Titan or BD Factors: $500
BD whippet: $100
BD pole: $60
BD skins: $110
BCA Tracker / shovel / probe: $350
Helmet: $75
Or about the same as what people here seem to spend all the time on a road bike.

If you need clothes, then maybe $500 for softshell pants, jacket, and insulating layers. Gas money to get to the trailhead and you're done spending money, except for occasional ski tunes.