Yao Jinnan

Yao Jinnan
— Gymnast —
Full name	Yao Jinnan
Country represented	China
Born	(1995-02-08) February 8, 1995 Fuzhou, Fujian
Height	145 cm (4 ft 9 in)
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior
Head coach(es)	王群策 (Wang Qunce)、徐惊雷 (Xu Jinglei)
Music	2010-2011 - West Side Story 2012-2013 - A for Angel 2014 Chinese Nationals - Sphynx 2014 Worlds - The Question of U by Prince
Medal record Representing China World Championships 2014 Nanning Uneven Bars 2011 Tokyo Balance Beam 2014 Nanning Team 2011 Tokyo Team 2011 Tokyo All-Around Asian Games 2014 Incheon Team 2014 Incheon All-Around 2014 Incheon Uneven Bars 2014 Incheon Floor Exercise National Games 2013 Dalian All-Around 2013 Dalian Uneven Bars

Yao Jinnan (born February 8, 1995) is a Chinese artistic gymnast. Yao represented China at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She is 2014 World Uneven Bars Champion and 2011 World All-Around bronze medalist and balance beam silver medalist.

Yao was the third female gymnast to perform the Mo salto on uneven bars.

Personal information

She has a twin sister who started gymnastic training with her but did not continue into elite level training.

Senior career

2011

In 2011, Yao made a successful international debut by winning gold on bars, beam and floor at the Cottbus world cup. She then won gold on floor and bronze on bars at the Doha world cup.

At the Chinese National Championships, Yao received silver in the all-around and uneven bars events, and bronze on floor exercise. At the Japan Cup, she won gold in the team event with teammates Yang Yilin, Sui Lu and Huang Qiushuang. In the all-around, she won the bronze medal.

Yao was named to the Chinese women's team to compete at the 2011 World Championships. Yao had a successful preliminary, qualifying as the highest Chinese gymnast in the all-round final, as well as qualifying to the balance beam and floor event finals. Yao contributed high scores on every apparatus to help win the bronze medal in the team competition.

She then placed third in the individual all-around final behind fellow first-year seniors Jordyn Wieber and Viktoria Komova. Yao fell on the balance beam in the individual all-around competition, incurring a mandatory one point deduction. Had Yao not fallen from the apparatus, she would have become the first World All-Around Champion from China.

In the balance beam event final, Yao won the silver medal behind teammate Sui Lu, and placed fourth in the floor event final, .134 behind bronze medalist Aly Raisman.

2012

At the Olympic Test Event in January 2012, Yao competed on uneven bars and balance beam, qualifying in third and fifth, respectively. She had some mistakes in the uneven bars final, but still managed to take the bronze medal behind Anastasia Grishina and Youna Dufournet. In the balance beam final, she had to count a fall and finished in sixth place.

At the Zibo World Cup in May 2012, Yao competed on uneven bars and balance beam. She qualified in first place for both apparatuses and went on to win the gold medal in the two events, ahead of her teammate Huang Qiushuang, who won the silver on both events.

Yao was scheduled to compete at the Chinese National Championships in May, but had to pull out due to a knee injury in podium training.

Yao was named to the Chinese women's team for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Due to a thigh injury, she was not at full strength, yet was still scheduled to compete the all-around in qualifications. In the qualifications, she started with a fall on beam and had to count a low 12.833 (51st place), followed with a fall on floor, scoring a 13.066 (54th place), and a fall on her double twisting Yurchenko on vault, scoring a 13.133. On uneven bars, she posted a 15.766 and qualified in fourth place to the uneven bars final. She also qualified to the all-around competition in 22nd place, but due to the two-per-country rule (Deng Linlin and Huang Qiushuang placed ahead of her), she was not allowed to compete.

In the team final, Yao was scheduled to compete on vault and uneven bars. She started with a solid routine on uneven bars, scoring a 15.533. On vault, she managed to land her double twisting Yurchenko, but had a low landing and scored a 14.333. Due to her low scoring vault and faults from her teammates, China placed fourth, unable to defend its Olympic title.

In the uneven bars final, Yao had a near perfect routine with a stuck double layout dismount. She was awarded a 15.766 and ended in fourth place, 0.15 behind bronze medal winner Beth Tweddle.

2013

In September, Yao competed at the Chinese Nationals and tied for gold in the all-around with Shang Chunsong. Yao was selected to compete at the World Championships along with Shang, Zeng Siqi and Huang Huidan.

At the 2013 World Championships, she qualified for the all-around and uneven bars finals. In the all-around, she performed the Mo salto on bars, an element that has not been performed in women's competition since 1996 by Mo Huilan (who debuted the skill in 1994) and Bi Wenjing. With this routine, she earned the highest uneven bars score of the day. Later, Yao fell on beam and finished outside of the medals, in fifth place in the all-around. In the uneven bars finals, Yao attempted the Mo salto again, but fell and did not medal.

2014

In April 1, Yao's Coach Wang announced Yao changed her name from Yao Jinnan to Yao Ziyi. It was said that "Jinnan" sounds like "too difficult to catch the gold" in Chinese. Wang hoped that the name can bring good luck for Yao. (in 2015 this turned out to be a rumour and her name is still Yao Jinnan) In May, Yao successfully defended her national all-around title at the Chinese National Championships. She also won gold on the uneven bars.

In the fall, Yao competed at the Asian Games in Incheon where she won gold with the team, and individually gold in the all-around, floor exercise and uneven bars. She was selected to compete at the 2014 World Championships held in Nanning, China where she won the team silver with her teammates Huang Huidan, Shang Chunsong, Tan Jiaxin, Bai Yawen, Chen Siyi, and Xie Yufen (alternate). Individually, Yao qualified for the all-around, uneven bars, and balance beam finals. She finished fifth in the all-around where Simone Biles of the United States won gold. In the uneven bars final, she won the gold medal with a 15.633, her first gold at a World Championships. She placed eighth in the balance beam finals. She was awarded the Longines Prize for Elegance. She received a trophy, a Longines watch, and a cheque worth $5,000 USD.

2015

In January, it was announced that Yao would most likely take the year off due a shoulder injury that requires surgery. She will be travelling to the United States for the operation.

Competitive history

Year	Event	Team	AA	VT	UB	BB	FX
2010	National Championships		4th		4th	7th	6th
2011	Cottbus World Cup				1st	1st	1st
	Doha World Cup				1st	4th	1st
	National Championships		2nd		2nd		3rd
	Japan Cup	1st	3rd
	World Championships	3rd	3rd			2nd	4th
2012	Zibo World Cup				1st	1st
	Olympic Games	4th			4th
2013	National Championships	7th	1st		3rd	5th	3rd
	National Games	6th	1st		2nd		7th
	World Championships		5th		6th
	Stuttgart World Cup	1st
2014	National Championships	5th	1st		1st	7th	2nd
	Asian Games	1st	1st		1st		1st
	World Championships	2nd	5th		1st	8th

External links

• Yao Jinnan at Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique