Cover Story: China’s Sports Corruption Dragnet Casts Pall Ahead of Paris Olympics

An avalanche of corruption investigations is sweeping through the former top echelons of China’s sporting regulator, putting an uneasy focus on how the nation prepared its athletes for recent Games

An avalanche of corruption investigations continues to sweep through the former top echelons of China’s sporting regulator, casting a shadow over the country’s spectacular performances in recent Olympics, just weeks before this year’s games in Paris, where its athletes could challenge the U.S. for the most gold medals.

On May 30, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the Communist Party’s top graft buster, announced it had launched an investigation into Gou Zongwen, a former chief of the General Administration of Sport (GAS), China’s top sports regulatory body.

Gou is the latest and highest-ranking among more than a dozen sports officials ensnared in the sweeping crackdown on corruption that began in late 2022 and has focused on bribery in soccer and the preparations in the lead up to the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and 2022 Beijing Winter Games.

The revelation may come as no surprise to long suffering Chinese soccer fans, who have bemoaned the perennial poor performance of the national men’s side, which is widely attributed to endemic corruption.