Gymnastics ($18,000 a year)
Gymnastics is notorious for plucking girls in the prime of their youth for elite training in Olympic gyms that can cost $200-500 a month, plus about $1,000 a month for coaching and traveling over 10-12 years. Dominique Moceanu, who was on the first U.S. women’s gymnastics team to win gold in 1996, recently published her first book about the high financial and emotional toll of competing since age 14 (now illegal). In 2006, she was denied permission to return to Nationals by USA Gymnastics due to a back injury, and therefore lost her funding to continue training.
