American-Born Skier Eileen Gu Gets Paid Millions by the Chinese Government

By Jim Geraghty

Saturday, February 14, 2026

 

Monday’s Morning Jolt noted the lack of American ire at American-born, Chinese-competing freestyle skier Eileen Gu, compared to, say, U.S. skier Hunter Hess. In his syndicated column Friday, Rich observed that choosing to compete for the People’s Republic of China in the modern era “is a little like deciding to represent a fascist country during the 1930s.”

 

Rich also wrote, “Who knows what inducements she’s been offered to be the centerpiece of Beijing’s effort to recruit more foreign athletes in order to enhance its national prestige.”

 

Thanks to the Wall Street Journal, we now know at least a little about those inducements.

 

But Gu, who grew up in the Bay Area and studies at Stanford, might be even more valuable to the Chinese government than she is to backers such as Porsche and Red Bull. And in the leadup to this Olympics, it became clear just how much China was willing to pay to support her.

 

In 2025, the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau was set to pay Gu and another athlete a combined $6.6 million.

 

That figure emerged in a public budget that was released in early 2025. It accidentally included the names of Gu and figure skater Zhu Yi or Beverly Zhu, another U.S.-born Olympic athlete who competes for China. The document didn’t break down their individual payments, though it’s likely that Gu, a three-time Olympic medalist, received a larger share of the funding.

 

Now, this isn’t some Chinese company paying Gu some sum in the millions for her modeling or an endorsement; this is a direct payment by a Chinese government agency. The Journal continues:

 

In total, Beijing’s sports bureau was set to pay Gu and Zhu nearly 100 million yuan, or $14 million over the past three years. The most recent allocation was for “striving for excellent results in qualifying for the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics,” according to the budget.

 

Gu’s name, along with Zhu’s, was deleted from the budgets soon after they emerged, but not before they spurred surprise and criticism from the Chinese public at a time when budgets were tight for essential services. Those comments were also scrubbed from social media.

 

Representatives for Gu didn’t respond to requests for comment.

 

I’ll bet they didn’t!

 

Now, remember, Gu was born in the United States, raised in San Francisco, attends Stanford and is, by every measure except one, an American success story. That lone exception is that she has chosen to complete under the flag of China, and it appears the Chinese government made an exception in its laws to count her as a Chinese citizen:

 

Although Gu had to become a Chinese citizen to compete for China, her full citizenship picture remains a mystery. Gu was raised in America and originally represented the U.S. when she first began competing internationally as a teenager. China doesn’t allow dual citizenship.

 

Well, apparently for her, they do.

 

I see some academic type has lamented that Gu was “subjected to conditional belonging by the media, whereby their status as Americans was contingent upon their perceived loyalty to the United States.” Eh, when you choose to not represent the country where you’re a citizen, where you were born, where you were raised, and where you train, and then agree to represent another country that pays you millions of dollars… is it really that outrageous to question her loyalty or to no longer think of her as one of “our” athletes?