China Spent $14M on U.S.-Born Athletes

The Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau’s leaked budget reveals financial incentives for athletes switching allegiance, raising questions about motivation and integrity

Eileen Gu has built a multi-million dollar empire since switching from the U.S. to China in 2019, but apparently that wasn’t enough. According to the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco-born freestyle skier along with fellow American-born figure skater Zhu Yi was paid a combined $6.6 million by the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau in 2025 specifically for “striving for excellent results in qualifying for the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics.” Over three years, the two athletes received nearly $14 million in government payments. The revelation came when the Beijing budget was posted online with their names, though those names have since been scrubbed from the public report. That’s not a coincidence. That’s damage control.

Gu’s narrative has always been complicated, and this payment just complicated it further

She was born in San Francisco, grew up in the United States, and decided in 2019 to represent China at the Olympics specifically to “inspire children from the country of her mother” at the 2022 Beijing Games. That was the stated motivation. She won two golds and a silver for China in Beijing, which genuinely is impressive. Then she became a millionaire many times over, actually. She earned over $23 million in 2025 alone, finishing as the fourth-highest earning female athlete globally. But here’s the thing: almost all of that ($23 million minus $20,000) came from endorsements and sponsorships, not from competition winnings or government payments.

Until now, apparently

 The Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau payment reveals that Gu and Zhu were being directly funded by the Chinese government specifically to qualify for these Olympics. That’s fundamentally different from earning sponsorship money. That’s a government investment in athletic performance. It raises uncomfortable questions: Would Gu still be competing for China without this financial incentive? Is she representing her “motherland” or representing a government check? The motivation suddenly becomes much murkier.

Zhu Yi’s situation is even stranger because she’s not even competing at these Olympics. Beverly Zhu was born in Los Angeles and switched to compete for China. She received millions in government payments to qualify for Milan, yet she’s not actually here. That suggests the payments were less about Olympic performance and more about securing elite talent for the Chinese team regardless of whether they actually competed.

What makes this particularly problematic is that China doesn’t allow dual citizenship. Gu presumably had to renounce her U.S. passport to compete for China. That’s a permanent decision. That’s not switching teams for an Olympic cycle that’s fundamentally altering your national identity. And now we’re learning there was substantial financial compensation involved. The question becomes: what was the decision actually about?

Gu’s post-competition quotes sound different in this context

 “Sometimes it feels like I’m carrying the weight of two countries on my shoulders,” she said after winning silver in slopestyle. “Just being able to ski through all of that, you know. To still show my best and still be so deeply in love with the sport. That’s really what I care about.” That sentiment is genuine if you believe her motivation was purely about love of sport and representing her mother’s country. It sounds hollow if you know she’s being paid millions by the Chinese government to do so.

The leaked budget and subsequent scrubbing of names suggests China understands this looks bad. If these were standard government sponsorships, there would be no reason to remove the names from the public record. The fact that they did suggests even Beijing knows this contradicts the “inspired to represent my mother’s country” narrative.

Gu has two more events remaining at these Olympics. Her performance will be impressive regardless. But the motivation will always be questioned now.