How much are the top racers in the obstacle racing world making?
Nicole Mericle won more obstacle racing prize money that any one else in 2019. This is a massive jump from 7th on our 2018 list with $27,000. Her biggest payday from 2018 was the OCRWC 3K where she won $6,300. In contrast, her largest one day payout this year was the 2018 Spartan World Championship in Tahoe, where she won $20K.
Her 2019 total of $66,050 is $7,600 more than the 2nd highest OCR money winner, Ryan Atkins, and is $12,117 more than the next female, Lindsay Webster.
A couple of other interesting tidbits from this years lists:
- Hundreds of thousands of dollars were taken out of the prize pool as Tough Mudder removed prize money.
- Jon Albon only ran 4 money races, and that was enough to earn him 7th on the list at nearly $25,000.
- Hunter McIntyre is not in the top 25 for the first time in years as he focused on Crossfit and Hyrox.
- North Americans dominated the top 10 men and women with Russia’s Sergei Perelygin and France’s Myriam Guillot-Boisset as the only Europeans.
- Myriam is the oldest race turning 40 this year, and the youngest is 21 year old, Veejay Jones.
- For a comparison to CrossFit, check out this list by The Morning Chalkup.
10. Rea Kolbl – $16,350
9. Veejay Jones – $18,333
8. Ryan Kempson-$19,000
7. Jon Albon – $24,956
6. Ryan Woods – $26,450
5. Robert Killian – $29,457
4. Myriam Guillot-Boisset – $34,315
3. Lindsay Webster – $53,933
2. Ryan Atkins – $58,400
1. Nicole Mericle – $66,050
Summary of Top-10 Highest Earners
The following table breaks down prize money won at races by race brand and series:
Top-25 Highest Earners by Gender
Here are the 25 male and female athletes to earn the most prize money purely from placement at races in 2019:
Women
**Editor’s Note – Jack Bauer would like to thank the following for their help with European and Worldwide totals: Chris Davis, Johnny Tieu, Hallvard Borsheim, Maggie Cvektovic, Jessie Montague, Andrew MacDonald, Kimi Isom, Ian Deeth, Chris Woolley, Albert Soley, Vivian Chee, Christian Szcherf, David Dietrich
Luke De-Benedictis, and Mik Gerylo.
Jack Bauer
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