Star Diver Zhang Jiaqi's Allowance: Olympic Gold but No Bank Card
Most people assume an Olympic gold medal guarantees a life of easy money. Zhang Jiaqi, a 22-year-old diving champion from China, offers a striking counterexample: she rents a modest apartment in Shanghai, lives alone, and has to check with her family before making any large payment, whether it is rent or a course fee.
Her story, reported this week by Chinese outlets including Today’s Women’s News, traces back to childhood. Zhang was a prodigy, winning two titles at the National Games in Tianjin at just 13. The roughly 810,000 yuan in prize money that came with that breakthrough went straight into a family account. By her own account, she never even touched the bank card.
That pattern has held for more than a decade. From her first few-thousand-yuan competition payout at age ten, every training stipend, competition bonus and share of group commercial deals has been pooled and managed by her relatives. The arrangement is common among young Chinese athletes, whose families often act as informal business managers while the athlete focuses entirely on training.
What makes Zhang’s case notable is how ordinary her daily life looks now. She is not living in a luxury compound or displaying the trappings of wealth. She rents in a regular residential neighborhood in Shanghai, a city where young professionals routinely spend a large share of their income on housing. When she needs to spend a significant sum, she asks home first.
For an international audience, the detail worth pausing on is the scale of Chinese sports prize money at the provincial and national level. A 13-year-old winning two National Games golds can bring in more than many families earn in years, especially in a sport like diving, where China dominates globally. But the money often arrives before the athlete is legally or practically able to manage it.
Zhang is far from the only young Chinese athlete in this position. Gymnasts, swimmers and divers who break through as teenagers typically hand financial control to parents, who then budget for training, travel, medical care and long-term savings. The system can protect young stars from bad decisions, but it also means a champion in her twenties may still feel like she is asking permission.
Her situation also reflects a broader shift in how Chinese audiences view athletes. Fans increasingly follow stars’ personal lives and finances, and stories about frugal champions or athletes who support their families often circulate widely. Zhang’s unglamorous Shanghai routine has drawn attention precisely because it cuts against the image of instant, effortless wealth.
Whether Zhang eventually takes control of her own finances is unclear. What is clear is that her career has been built on discipline, and the same structure that shaped her training appears to shape her spending. For now, the image that lingers is simple: a world-class diver, alone in a rented flat, double-checking with her family before she buys anything big.