China athletics prize money
China has taken $1,813,250 out of athletics, 18th of the 130 countries the sport has paid. Gong Lijiao is the biggest earner on $315,000, 17.4% of the national total.
$1,787,250 of that belongs to 114 athletes by name. The other $26,000 is the federation's, won by five teams whose purse is paid to the country rather than split between the runners.
Every China athlete athletics has paid
114 of them, biggest first
| # | ATHLETE | PAID | WINS | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gong Lijiao | 27 | 13 | $315,000 |
| 2 | Yan Ziyi | 7 | 5 | $157,500 |
| 3 | Lyu Huihui | 12 | 6 | $120,250 |
| 4 | Feng Bin | 15 | 3 | $103,000 |
| 5 | Xie Zhenye | 15 | - | $52,750 |
| 6 | Zhang Guowei | 13 | 1 | $50,250 |
| 7 | Xie Wenjun | 14 | 1 | $47,000 |
| 8 | Jinzhe Li | 9 | 2 | $43,000 |
| 9 | Xiang Liu | 5 | 3 | $40,000 |
| 10 | Liu Shiying | 5 | - | $36,000 |
| 11 | Wang Zhaozhao | 1 | - | $35,000 |
| 12 | Xinglong Gao | 6 | 2 | $35,000 |
| 13 | Zhao Jie | 1 | - | $35,000 |
| 14 | Zhu Yaming | 8 | - | $33,750 |
| 15 | Dong Bin | 10 | - | $31,500 |
| 16 | Shi Yuhao | 3 | - | $31,500 |
| 17 | Wang Yu | 6 | 1 | $30,750 |
| 18 | Wang Jianan | 8 | - | $30,000 |
| 19 | Yanfeng Li | 4 | 2 | $28,000 |
| 20 | Su Bingtian | 8 | - | $27,500 |
| 21 | Li Ling | 8 | - | $23,750 |
| 22 | Liu Junxi | 6 | - | $23,750 |
| 23 | Changrui Xue | 10 | - | $23,000 |
| 24 | Zhang Jiale | 1 | - | $22,000 |
| 25 | Zhang Mingkun | 2 | 1 | $17,000 |
| 26 | Peng Li | 1 | - | $16,000 |
| 27 | Zhou Yingcheng | 1 | - | $16,000 |
| 28 | Huang Changzhou | 7 | - | $15,500 |
| 29 | Xiangrong Liu | 6 | - | $15,500 |
| 30 | Song Jiayuan | 7 | - | $13,500 |
| 31 | Yansheng Yang | 3 | 1 | $13,500 |
| 32 | Dongpeng Shi | 5 | - | $13,000 |
| 33 | Xiongfeng Su | 3 | - | $13,000 |
| 34 | Xingjuan Zheng | 4 | - | $12,833 |
| 35 | Huang Bokai | 7 | - | $12,500 |
| 36 | Xu Zhuoyi | 5 | - | $12,000 |
| 37 | Su Wen | 3 | - | $11,000 |
| 38 | Yanmei Li | 4 | - | $11,000 |
| 39 | Xinyue Su | 4 | - | $9,500 |
| 40 | Shu Heng | 3 | - | $8,500 |
| 41 | Zhang Yaoguang | 3 | - | $8,000 |
| 42 | Peimeng Zhang | 4 | - | $7,500 |
| 43 | Dai Qianqian | 2 | - | $7,000 |
| 44 | Qian Haifeng | 1 | - | $7,000 |
| 45 | Wei Yongli | 5 | - | $7,000 |
| 46 | Yang Jiayu | 1 | - | $7,000 |
| 47 | Limei Xie | 3 | - | $6,500 |
| 48 | Zhang Linru | 1 | - | $6,000 |
| 49 | Chen Yujie | 3 | - | $5,500 |
| 50 | Li Lingyu | 2 | - | $5,500 |
| 51 | Tan Jian | 2 | - | $5,500 |
| 52 | Wu Yanni | 5 | - | $5,500 |
| 53 | Yanxi Li | 3 | - | $5,500 |
| 54 | Wu Quanming | 1 | - | $5,000 |
| 55 | Wang Chunyu | 3 | - | $4,500 |
| 56 | Wen Cheng | 1 | - | $4,000 |
| 57 | Xiong Shiqi | 2 | - | $4,000 |
| 58 | Yao Jie | 3 | - | $3,750 |
| 59 | Qinggang Zhao | 2 | - | $3,500 |
| 60 | Xie Zhiyu | 3 | - | $3,500 |
| 61 | Chen Qi | 2 | - | $3,000 |
| 62 | Gao Yang | 2 | - | $3,000 |
| 63 | Ka Bian | 1 | - | $3,000 |
| 64 | Shuo Cao | 2 | - | $3,000 |
| 65 | Tianqian Guo | 1 | - | $3,000 |
| 66 | Xia Xiao | 2 | - | $3,000 |
| 67 | Xiaowei Du | 1 | - | $3,000 |
| 68 | Wang Zhen | 2 | - | $2,542 |
| 69 | Wupin Wang | 1 | - | $2,500 |
| 70 | Xiaoyi Zhang | 1 | - | $2,500 |
| 71 | Fang Yaoqing | 1 | - | $2,000 |
| 72 | Huadong Zhang | 1 | - | $2,000 |
| 73 | Jie Yao | 1 | - | $2,000 |
| 74 | Li Chenyang | 2 | - | $2,000 |
| 75 | Li Zhilong | 1 | - | $2,000 |
| 76 | Taifeng Sun | 1 | - | $2,000 |
| 77 | Yanan Liu | 1 | - | $2,000 |
| 78 | Yujia Tao | 1 | - | $2,000 |
| 79 | Jiang Zhichao | 2 | - | $1,750 |
| 80 | Wang Yang | 1 | - | $1,750 |
| 81 | Zhong Tao | 1 | - | $1,625 |
| 82 | Fei Yang | 1 | - | $1,500 |
| 83 | Guangfu Wang | 1 | - | $1,500 |
| 84 | Honglin Zhang | 1 | - | $1,500 |
| 85 | Jiang Lan | 1 | - | $1,500 |
| 86 | Li Yuting | 1 | - | $1,500 |
| 87 | Li Zhenzhu | 1 | - | $1,500 |
| 88 | Lu Jiawen | 1 | - | $1,500 |
| 89 | Qi Yang | 1 | - | $1,500 |
| 90 | Qiang Qin | 1 | - | $1,500 |
| 91 | Wang Chen | 1 | - | $1,500 |
| 92 | Xiaosheng Liu | 1 | - | $1,500 |
| 93 | Xiaoyin Tang | 1 | - | $1,500 |
| 94 | Yanbo Yang | 1 | - | $1,500 |
| 95 | Yi Lao | 1 | - | $1,500 |
| 96 | Yin Jing | 1 | - | $1,500 |
| 97 | Zhang Wei | 1 | - | $1,500 |
| 98 | Chen Jianxin | 1 | - | $1,000 |
| 99 | Gong Debin | 1 | - | $1,000 |
| 100 | Haining Teng | 1 | - | $1,000 |
| 101 | Jiabei Ye | 1 | - | $1,000 |
| 102 | Jianhang Zeng | 1 | - | $1,000 |
| 103 | Jingwen Chen | 1 | - | $1,000 |
| 104 | Li Yong | 1 | - | $1,000 |
| 105 | Like Wang | 1 | - | $1,000 |
| 106 | Siyu Gu | 1 | - | $1,000 |
| 107 | Tan Mengyi | 1 | - | $1,000 |
| 108 | Xiaoling Xu | 1 | - | $1,000 |
| 109 | Xingyu Jiang | 1 | - | $1,000 |
| 110 | Zhao Jing | 1 | - | $1,000 |
| 111 | Zhenwei Yu | 1 | - | $1,000 |
| 112 | Zhongze Guo | 1 | - | $1,000 |
| 113 | Zhu Shenglong | 1 | - | $750 |
| 114 | Wu Ruiting | 1 | - | $500 |
Career totals across all six competitions, not a single season. PAID is how many finishing places were paid for, which is a different count from wins: a second place in a Diamond League final and a world title are both one payment. 105 of these athletes have a page of their own here.
The biggest earners
The top twelve of 114
Gong Lijiao holds 17.4% of everything China has won in athletics. The three biggest hold 32.7% of it between them, and $15,678 is what the national total works out at per paid athlete.
Where the money comes from
All six competitions, and what each has sent China
| COMPETITION | ATHLETES | WINS | TO ATHLETES | TO FEDERATION | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diamond League | 105 | 41 | $1,474,250$1.5m | - | $1,474,250$1.5m |
| World Championships | 12 | - | $184,000 | - | $184,000 |
| Indoor Championships | 6 | - | $54,000 | $16,000 | $70,000 |
| Ultimate Championship | 1 | - | $75,000 | - | $75,000 |
| World Relays | - | - | - | $10,000 | $10,000 |
| Cross Country | - | - | - | - | - |
| All six | 114 | 41 | $1,787,250$1.8m | $26,000 | $1,813,250$1.8m |
The Diamond League is the biggest of the six for China on $1,474,250, 81.3% of the national total. Five of the six have paid China. China has won nothing at the World Cross Country Championships.
The ATHLETES column counts the people each competition paid, so it does not add up to 114: ten athletes have been paid by more than one of the six, and are counted in every row that paid them and once in the national total. Gong Lijiao has been paid by two of them: the Diamond League and the World Indoor Championships.
The cheques that went to the federation
5 team payments, paid to China rather than to anyone who ran
| RACE | PLACE | WHO RAN | PURSE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men's 4 × 400 metres relay, 2025 | 4th | Zheng Chiyu, Zhang Qining, Xu Xinlong, Ju Tianqi | $8,000 |
| Women's 4 × 400 metres relay, 2025 | 4th | Yan Hailing, Li Fengdan, Zuo Siyu, Liu Yinglan | $8,000 |
| Women's 4 × 100 metres relay, 2026 | 5th | Liang Xiaojing, Liu Guoyi, Zhu Junying, Chen Yujie | $6,000 |
| Men's 4 × 400 metres relay, 2025 | 8th | Bao Chengzhe, Yu Dexiang, Zheng Chiyu, Li Yiqing | $2,000 |
| Mixed 4 × 100 metres relay, 2025 | 7th | Shuping Huang, Lingyao Kong, Jinfeng Chen, Guanfeng Chen | $2,000 |
None of this is in any athlete's total above, here or anywhere else on the site. A relay purse is paid to the team whole, a World Relays ladder place is a country's, and a cross country team standing pays the federation behind the first four runners home.
China against the rest
Where $1,813,250 puts China
That is 1.3% of the $135,290,875 athletics has paid to a country, and 18th out of 130. China has Norway above on $2,108,833 and Czechia below on $1,752,792.
The biggest of the 130 is the United States on $29,436,125, which is 21.8% of everything the sport has paid to a country. The full money list ranks every one of them, and the six competitions behind these figures each have a section of their own.
Countries either side of China
- United States
- Kenya
- Jamaica
- Great Britain
- Ethiopia
- Germany
- Australia
- France
- Netherlands
- Poland
- Sweden
- Italy
- South Africa
- Ukraine
- Canada
- Cuba
- Norway
- Czechia
- Botswana
- Greece
- Switzerland
- Spain
- New Zealand
- Brazil
- RUS
- Authorised Neutral Athletes
- Bahamas
- Croatia
- Portugal
- Bahrain
- Nigeria
- Morocco
- Dominican Republic
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Belgium
- Ivory Coast
- Japan
- Qatar
- Serbia
- Colombia
Frequently asked questions
How much prize money has China won in athletics?
$1,813,250 across the six competitions this section holds: the Diamond League, the World Championships, the World Indoor Championships, the Ultimate Championship, the World Relays and the World Cross Country Championships. That is 18th of the 130 countries athletics has paid, and 1.3% of the $135,290,875 the sport has sent to a country.
Which China athlete earns the most prize money?
Gong Lijiao, on $315,000 from 27 paid finishes and thirteen wins. That is 17.4% of everything China has won. Yan Ziyi is next on $157,500.
Does prize money won by China go to the athlete or the federation?
$1,787,250 of that belongs to 114 athletes by name. The other $26,000 is the federation's, won by five teams whose purse is paid to the country rather than split between the runners.
How many athletes from China have won athletics prize money?
114, sharing $1,787,250 between them, which is $15,678 each. Thirteen of them have won a title, 41 in all. Ten have been paid by more than one of the six competitions.
Where to next
The competitions that paid China
Every figure on this page comes out of one of the six below, and each has its own section here, event by event and edition by edition, with the full ladder of what each finishing place was worth. The country money list puts China against the other 129 the sport has paid.