Denise Austin is a veteran fitness star who achieved huge fame in the 90s thanks to her famous workout videos as she was known for working out on the beach, wearing either a leotard or a bikini.
In her later years, the former college gymnast became an author and columnist, as well as a member of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. She is also an activist having worked hard in raising awareness in the fight against women’s heart disease which earned her the 2008 Red Dress Award by Woman’s Day magazine.
Denise Austin Biography (Age)
Denise Austin was born Denise Katnich, one of the four children of Rita Austin and Joe Katich, on the 13th of February, 1957, in San Pedro, a community located in Los Angeles, California. From a very young age, Austin was heavily involved in sports, following in the footsteps of her father who was a professional baseball player with the St. Louis Browns.
After competing and achieving great success in gymnastics in high school, Austin earned a gymnastics scholarship to attend the University of Arizona, where she reached the rank of nine in the NCAA on a balance beam. After a few years there, she transferred to California State University, Long Beach, where she completed the requirements for a bachelor’s degree in physical education, and a minor in exercise physiology.
During her time in college, Austin began making and producing fitness tapes and was taking fitness classes where she and other participants involved did yoga, pilates, cross-training, and aerobic exercise. She took it a step further after graduating as she began writing books and columns on exercise and staying fit while still making videos and taking classes. Austin promoted staying fit naturally through a balanced program of exercise and a proper diet. She was known to have consulted with experts in nutrition as she also carried out extensive research to create realistic solutions to weight control and fitness. Some of her early workout tape releases include Non-Aerobic Trim & Tone Workout (1988) and Step Workout featuring the Reebok Step (1991).
In the 90s, Denise Austin was able to get a time slot on ESPN2 where her exercise program, “Getting Fit with Denise Austin”, was televised for a number of years as she continued to release more high-selling workout DVD tapes from her “Hit the Spot” series. They include; Hit the Spot: Abs (1995), Hit the Spot: Thighs (1995), Hit the Spot: Buns (1995), Hit the Spot: Fat Burning Blast (1996), Hit the Spot: Rock Hard Abs (1996), Hit the Spot: Tone & Tighten – Abs, Buns & Thighs (1999), and Hit the Spot: Totally Toned Trio (1999), among numerous others.
Austin’s ESPN show was later moved to ESPN Classic and then the regional sports cable and satellite channel, Altitude Sports and Entertainment before ending up on the Lifetime Network where it was renamed “Fit and Lite” and “Denise Austin’s Daily Workout”. The shows were later canceled in 2008 as Austin revealed she was working on producing a new program that was scheduled to begin that same year, however, the show did not debut as she moved on to become a member of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, under the Bush Administration as well as that of Barack Obama.
Denise Austin Net Worth
Denise Austin has been able to make a good living from her passion for fitness. She has worked as a personal trainer for some of the most high-profile people in Hollywood and elsewhere, while also becoming an entrepreneur with the long series of workout tapes that she has been releasing for almost three decades now. Add that to her other endeavors and you can see why a few reports have estimated her net worth to be in tens of millions, however, the exact amount is not known to the public.
Other Facts
Family – Husband, kids
For more than three decades, since April 30, 1983, to be exact, Denise Austin has been married to her husband, Jeff Austin, a former professional tennis player turned sports agent, and brother to former World No. 1 and US Open champion Tracy Austin.
Jeff Austin was an All-American in college as he was a member of the 1970 and 1971 NCAA Championship winning teams for the University of California, Los Angeles before turning professional. He achieved the highest ranking of 52 (October 15, 1973) in his professional career before leaving the sport. Together, the pair has two daughters; Kelly who was born in 1990, and Katie, who was born three years later in 1993. Just like her mother, Katie is also a fitness instructor. She operates a Youtube channel where she has close to 45 thousand subscribers, and a website called GetFitWithKatie.com.
Height and Weight
Denise Austin is as tall as the average American female as she has a height of 5 feet 4 inches (1.63 m). The exact figure of her weight, on the other hand, is not known, but knowing that she is a fitness guru, as can be seen from her pictures, she is very much in shape.
