Gold medal winner Beard bared all, with the exception of her goggles, for the print ad.
At the same time as releasing the ad Peta highlighted an investigation into the Chinese fur industry, from where it claims most of the world's fur originates. Its video footage shows mink, foxes, dogs and cats held in tiny cages and sometimes skinned before they are dead.
Beard and Peta were initially scheduled to hold a press conference in the fancy Pangu Hotel, which has a large balcony overlooking the summer Olympics swimming arena.
There was even some talk of Beard stripping down and preaching the campaign slogan to the press, 'Be Comfortable in Your Own Skin. Don't Wear Fur'.
However, the Chinese government interpreted the conference and Beard's involvement with Peta's campaign as a protest against the Beijing Olympics.
According to Jason Baker, the director of the Asian-Pacific branch for Peta, the event was not organized to criticize Chinese politics.
Baker told the Daily Telegraph: "We weren't making a political attack on the Chinese government and had sent our press release in advance to the Beijing committee, but apparently that was not enough."
Despite the sent press release, Chinese officials had the event cancelled with the excuse of "safety concerns".
However, Peta was able to relocate the conference to the gates of the Athletes' Village and had a clothed Amanda Beard pose with the enlarged, risque print for the press.