The 2026 Winter Olympics kicked off today in Milan, bringing together roughly 3,000 athletes from around 90 countries to compete across 15 sports. For most of them, the payoff is symbolic rather than financial: a medal, a flag raised, and a lifetime of national pride. Outside of a small handful of professionals, the typical Olympian is not especially well paid. Many spend years funding their own training, coaches, travel, equipment, nutrition, and medical care, often with little guarantee of breaking even.
Even winning an Olympic medal does not automatically translate into financial security. While some countries do not offer any government-backed bonuses at all, others provide payments that vary widely by nation, sport, and medal color. In the United States, medalists receive modest bonuses from the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, not the federal government, while athletes from other countries can earn six-figure payouts for a single gold medal.
For example, American athletes earn $37,500 for gold, $22,500 for silver, and $15,000 for bronze. Elsewhere, incentives can be far more aggressive, with certain governments and Olympic committees offering bonuses approaching $800,000, sometimes accompanied by tax exemptions, housing, cars, or lifetime stipends.
For the vast majority of athletes competing in Milan, even a six-figure bonus would be life-changing money. But not for all of them. And for one competitor at these Games, even an $800,000 gold medal payout would barely register as a rounding error on her annual income.
That athlete is Eileen Gu, the highest-paid competitor at the Milan Games. She earns more than the professional hockey players skating in the Olympic tournament, despite competing in a sport that offers relatively little prize money. Gu lives in the United States, trains in Switzerland, competes internationally for China… and no one knows her actual current citizenship status…
(Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
From Bay Area Prodigy to Global Star
Eileen Gu was raised in San Francisco by her mother, a Chinese immigrant, and began skiing at a young age while balancing elite athletics with a traditional academic track. She attended private schools in the Bay Area, trained extensively in Europe, and later enrolled at Stanford University, where she has continued to base much of her life in the United States. By the time she reached her late teens, Gu was already one of the most technically gifted freestyle skiers in the world, capable of winning at the highest levels across multiple disciplines.
Her athletic success alone, however, does not explain her financial ascent. Gu is unusually telegenic, fashion-forward, and fluent in both English and Mandarin, a combination that made her exceptionally attractive to global brands long before she ever became an Olympic champion.
In 2019, Gu made the decision that would permanently reshape her career and public image: she chose to compete internationally for China, her mother’s home country, rather than the United States. The move immediately turned her into one of the most discussed athletes in the world, praised by some as a bridge between cultures and criticized by others as a political or financial calculation.
$23 Million Endorsement Champion
Eileen Gu’s unique blend of Olympic success, aesthetic appeal, and rare cross-cultural fluency has translated into an endorsement portfolio unlike anything previously seen in winter sports. She has endorsement contracts with at least 30 international and Chinese brands. Gu has secured long-term deals across fashion, luxury goods, sportswear, and consumer brands, particularly companies seeking access to both Western and Chinese markets through a single figure. Her known endorsement partners include:
- Anta
- Louis Vuitton
- Tiffany & Co.
- Victoria’s Secret
- Rolex
- Red Bull
- Cadillac
- IWC Schaffhausen
- Mengniu Dairy
- Luckin Coffee
These partnerships translated into $23 million in earnings in 2025, with at least that much on tap again in 2026. These earnings make Eileen the highest-paid athlete at the games by a wide margin.
The Citizenship Question
The biggest question and controversy about Eileen Gu is whether she is a U.S. citizen, a Chinese citizen, or something in between at this exact moment.
By way of comparison, citizenship rules are usually straightforward. I was born in the United States, but my grandparents were born in Ireland. Ireland allows children and grandchildren of people born in Ireland to obtain Irish citizenship, so I hold both American and Irish passports. Technically, that would make me eligible to compete for Ireland at the Olympics. And someday, if entering text into a WordPress box becomes an Olympic sport, I may even bring home gold for either America or Ireland. Whichever offers the better bonus.
China does not allow dual citizenship.
Under Chinese law, dual nationality is not recognized. Anyone who voluntarily acquires foreign citizenship is required to relinquish Chinese citizenship, and vice versa. That legal reality has fueled years of speculation since Eileen Gu first burst onto the international stage in 2019. If she retained her American citizenship, how is she eligible to compete for China? If she renounced it, why has there been no public confirmation? And if some exception exists, what does that mean for other athletes?
The “mystery” isn’t actually about whether she holds a Chinese passport—she almost certainly does. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) requires a valid passport for competition, and back in 2022, they confirmed that Gu had naturalized in China in 2019. The real question is whether she ever actually gave up her American one.
Usually, there is a paper trail for this. The U.S. Department of the Treasury publishes a quarterly list in the Federal Register of every individual who has chosen to expatriate and renounce their citizenship. Since Gu began competing for China, journalists and skeptics have scoured these records. As of early 2026, her name has yet to appear on any of those lists.
Gu has consistently declined to answer those questions directly. In a 2022 interview, and again in more recent media rounds leading up to Milan, she has leaned on a carefully worded explanation of identity rather than legal status:
“Since I was little, I’ve always said when I’m in the U.S., I’m American, but when I’m in China, I’m Chinese.”
That ambiguity has made Gu a lightning rod. Some American critics accuse her of opportunism or disloyalty, while some Chinese commentators question whether she is truly committed to the country she represents.
Think about it – Eileen was born and raised in California. She learned to ski in Lake Tahoe. Her family lives in the United States. She is CURRENTLY an undergrad student at Stanford University. She does train in China, though (and Switzerland). Speaking of her China training…
In early 2025, documents briefly published by the Beijing city government indicated that more than $6.6 million had been allocated for training expenses for Gu and another U.S.-born winter athlete ahead of the Milan Games. The funds were described as “assurance expenditure” for elite competition training. Shortly after the documents were noticed, references to the athletes were removed from the government website, and related coverage by Chinese financial outlets was taken down as well. Neither Gu nor Chinese officials publicly addressed the allocation.
The episode underscored how different Gu’s situation appears to be from that of a typical Olympic athlete. While most competitors are piecing together funding from sponsors, national federations, and personal savings, Gu appears to operate within a hybrid system that blends private commercial wealth with substantial state-backed training support.
Regardless of what her passport actually says, Eileen’s timing has been exceptionally fortunate. For decades, Chinese Olympic athletes were largely shut out of the global endorsement economy altogether. Commercial deals were discouraged, tightly regulated, or outright prohibited. When endorsements were allowed, they typically required government approval, and athletes were often required to split their income with state sports authorities. While those restrictions have loosened in recent years, it remains unclear whether Gu is subject to any revenue-sharing arrangement today. Neither Gu nor her representatives have publicly clarified how her endorsement income is structured.
In the next few weeks, we will know if Eileen will add another Olympic medal to her collection. If she does, it will count for China on the podium. She’ll then bring the medal “home” to America. Will there be a parade in her honor in America? What would we be honoring exactly if so? No matter what, she’ll make a fortune for herself.
