Gu Ailing’s citizenship has been subject to scrutiny and controversy since she decided to compete in China instead of the United States, where she was born.
Born in San Francisco, she said her decision to renew her allegiance in 2019 had something to do with “motivating” children from her mother’s country at the Olympics in her home country. It was the 2022 Beijing Olympics, and Gu won two gold medals and a silver medal for China in freestyle skiing.
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Since then she has become a millionaire multiple times, mostly because of her online presence and endorsements rather than her skiing. She is the fourth-highest-paid female athlete in 2025, earning more than $23 million. According to Sportico, all but $20,000 of the $23 million came from endorsements.
Now, she’s back in the Olympics, still competing for China, for which she’s reportedly being paid handsomely.
According to the “Wall Street Journal” report, Gu and the American figure skater Zhu Yi, who represented China in the competition, received a total of US$6.6 million in remuneration from the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau in 2025 for “striving for excellent results in the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics qualifying competition.” The pair were reportedly paid a combined nearly $14 million over the past three years.
The money was revealed when the Beijing Sports Bureau budget was released online, with Gu and Zhu’s names unredacted. Their names have since been removed from public reports.
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Gu has already won a slopestyle silver medal in Italy, while Zhu (born Beverly Zhu in Los Angeles) is not competing in the 2026 Olympics.
“Sometimes it feels like I have the weight of two countries on my shoulders,” Gu said after winning silver in the slopestyle event. “You know, just being able to ski and go through it all. Still bring out the best in me and still have a deep love for the sport.
“It’s really something that I care about and I’m happy to be able to represent that today.”
Gu will compete in two other events – women’s halfpipe and aerial jump.
