China athletics prize money
China has taken $899,167 out of athletics, 21st of the 121 countries the sport has paid. Yan Ziyi is the biggest earner on $157,500, 17.5% of the national total.
$873,167 of that belongs to 47 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
47 of them, biggest first
| # | ATHLETE | PAID | WINS | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yan Ziyi | 7 | 5 | $157,500 |
| 2 | Feng Bin | 15 | 3 | $103,000 |
| 3 | Lü Huihui | 5 | 3 | $77,250 |
| 4 | Gong Lijiao | 8 | 4 | $55,000 |
| 5 | Gong Lijao | 2 | 1 | $54,000 |
| 6 | Xie Zhenye | 9 | — | $41,750 |
| 7 | Wang Zhaozhao | 1 | — | $35,000 |
| 8 | Zhao Jie | 1 | — | $35,000 |
| 9 | Zhu Yaming | 8 | — | $33,750 |
| 10 | Shi Yuhao | 2 | — | $25,500 |
| 11 | Liu Junxi | 6 | — | $23,750 |
| 12 | Zhang Jiale | 1 | — | $22,000 |
| 13 | Zhang Mingkun | 2 | 1 | $17,000 |
| 14 | Peng Li | 1 | — | $16,000 |
| 15 | Wang Jianan | 3 | — | $16,000 |
| 16 | Zhou Yingcheng | 1 | — | $16,000 |
| 17 | Wang Yu | 3 | 1 | $14,750 |
| 18 | Song Jiayuan | 7 | — | $13,500 |
| 19 | Xu Zhuoyi | 5 | — | $12,000 |
| 20 | Su Wen | 3 | — | $11,000 |
| 21 | Shu Heng | 3 | — | $8,500 |
| 22 | Dai Qianqian | 2 | — | $7,000 |
| 23 | Qian Haifeng | 1 | — | $7,000 |
| 24 | Yang Jiayu | 1 | — | $7,000 |
| 25 | Huang Bokai | 3 | — | $6,750 |
| 26 | Zhang Linru | 1 | — | $6,000 |
| 27 | Chen Yujie | 3 | — | $5,500 |
| 28 | Wu Yanni | 5 | — | $5,500 |
| 29 | Wu Quanming | 1 | — | $5,000 |
| 30 | Dong Bin | 2 | — | $4,500 |
| 31 | Liu Shiying | 2 | — | $4,000 |
| 32 | Xiong Shiqi | 2 | — | $4,000 |
| 33 | Xie Zhiyu | 3 | — | $3,500 |
| 34 | Wang Zhen | 2 | — | $2,542 |
| 35 | Fang Yaoqing | 1 | — | $2,000 |
| 36 | Li Chenyang | 2 | — | $2,000 |
| 37 | Jiang Zhichao | 2 | — | $1,750 |
| 38 | Zhong Tao | 1 | — | $1,625 |
| 39 | Li Yuting | 1 | — | $1,500 |
| 40 | Lu Jiawen | 1 | — | $1,500 |
| 41 | Wang Chunyu | 1 | — | $1,500 |
| 42 | Gong Debin | 1 | — | $1,000 |
| 43 | Tan Mengyi | 1 | — | $1,000 |
| 44 | Zhang Guowei | 1 | — | $1,000 |
| 45 | Zhu Shenglong | 1 | — | $750 |
| 46 | Wu Ruiting | 1 | — | $500 |
| 47 | Yao Jie | 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. 38 of these athletes have a page of their own here.
The biggest earners
The top twelve of 47
Yan Ziyi holds 17.5% of everything China has won in athletics. The three biggest hold 37.6% of it between them, and $18,578 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 | 38 | 18 | $560,167 | — | $560,167 |
| 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 | 47 | 18 | $873,167 | $26,000 | $899,167 |
The Diamond League is the biggest of the six for China on $560,167, 62.3% 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 47: 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. Yan Ziyi has been paid by two of them: the Diamond League and the Ultimate Championship.
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 $899,167 puts China
That is 1.2% of the $74,963,667 athletics has paid to a country, and 21st out of 121. China has Greece above on $987,375 and Brazil below on $877,000.
The biggest of the 121 is the United States on $16,292,792, which is 21.7% 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
- Jamaica
- Kenya
- Great Britain
- Ethiopia
- Australia
- Italy
- Netherlands
- Sweden
- Germany
- Norway
- Ukraine
- Canada
- Switzerland
- France
- Cuba
- Poland
- Botswana
- South Africa
- Greece
- Brazil
- Spain
- New Zealand
- Dominican Republic
- Portugal
- Japan
- Nigeria
- Bahrain
- Belgium
- Slovenia
- Uganda
- Czechia
- Morocco
- Algeria
- Bahamas
- Serbia
- Grenada
- Saint Lucia
- Authorised Neutral Athletes
- Ivory Coast
Frequently asked questions
How much prize money has China won in athletics?
$899,167 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 21st of the 121 countries athletics has paid, and 1.2% of the $74,963,667 the sport has sent to a country.
Which China athlete earns the most prize money?
Yan Ziyi, on $157,500 from seven paid finishes and five wins. That is 17.5% of everything China has won. Feng Bin is next on $103,000.
Does prize money won by China go to the athlete or the federation?
$873,167 of that belongs to 47 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?
47, sharing $873,167 between them, which is $18,578 each. Seven of them have won a title, 18 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 120 the sport has paid.