Beyond the medals: Top 5 most successful Estonian transitions from sports to business
Toomas and Tõnu Tõniste, the identical twins formerly competing in water sports, the Estonian version of the Winklevoss brothers, but with two Olympic medals, have made the most successful leap from athletics to business in Estonia, with their company holding around five million euros in retained profits.
The weekly tabloid Kroonika wrote today that the pair mainly import alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, but also deal in clothes, both import and manufacturing, and real estate. Toomas Tõniste is also a member of the Estonian parliament for IRL since 2007.
Martin Müürsepp, a former basketball player with NBA experience, is a distant second with around 400,000 euros in retained profits from five companies which he owns or co-owns.
Another IRL MP and Olympic medalist, Erki Nool, is third. He is an owner and part-owner in a number of companies with a total of 200,000 euros in retained profits.
Skying Olympic winner Andrus Veerpalu is fourth on the list, owning a hotel and a company advising on financial matters. His retained profits were currently calculated at 140,000 euros.
Former swimmer Indrek Sei completes the top five, with a share in the Boost juice franchise in Estonia and retained profits of 90,000 euros.