Yao Jinnan

Chinese artistic gymnast

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Yao Jinnan

Full name| Yao Jinnan
Country represented|  China
Born|  (1995-02-08) February 8, 1995 (age 27)
Fuzhou, Fujian
Height| 145 cm (4 ft 9 in)[1]
Discipline| Women's artistic gymnastics
Level| Senior
Years on national team| 2011–16 (CHN)
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

Awards| Longines Prize for Elegance

Yao Jinnan (born February 8, 1995) is a retired artistic gymnast who represented China at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She is the 2014 world champion on the uneven bars, and the 2011 world all-around bronze medalist and balance beam silver medalist.

Yao is one of only a handful of gymnasts, all Chinese, to successfully perform the "Mo salto" on uneven bars.

## Gymnastics career[edit]

### 2011[edit]

Yao made her international debut at a World Cup event in Cottbus, Germany, where she won gold medals on the uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise.[2] She then won gold on floor and bronze on bars at the Doha World Cup.

At the 2011 Chinese National Championships, Yao received silver medals in the all-around and on uneven bars, and bronze on floor exercise. At the Japan Cup, she won the bronze medal in the all-around and gold in the team event with teammates Yang Yilin, Sui Lu and Huang Qiushuang.

Yao was named to the Chinese women's team for the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and performed well in the preliminary round, qualifying to the all-around, beam and floor finals. In the team final, she contributed high scores on every apparatus to help China win the bronze medal. In the all-around, she fell off the beam and placed third, behind fellow first-year seniors Jordyn Wieber of the United States and Viktoria Komova of Russia. Had she not fallen, she would have become the first world all-around champion from China.

In the balance beam event final, she won the silver medal behind Sui. In the floor final, she placed fourth, 0.134 points behind bronze medalist Aly Raisman of the United States.

### 2012[edit]

At the Olympic Test Event in London in January, Yao competed on uneven bars and balance beam, finishing third and fifth, respectively. She made some mistakes in the bars final but still managed to take the bronze medal behind Russia's Anastasia Grishina and France's Youna Dufournet. In the balance beam final, she fell and finished in sixth place.

At the Zibo World Cup in May 2012, Yao won gold medals on uneven bars and balance beam, ahead of her teammate Huang Qiushuang, who won the silver on both events. She was scheduled to compete at the Chinese National Championships later that month, but had to withdraw after injuring her knee in podium training. She was nonetheless named to the Chinese women's gymnastics team for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, along with Huang, Sui, Deng Linlin and He Kexin.[3]

#### Olympic Games[edit]

Due to a thigh injury, Yao was not at full strength at the Olympics, but she still competed on all four events in the qualifications round. She fell on three of the four: beam, where she scored 12.833 (51st place); floor, where she scored 13.066 (54th place), and vault, where she scored 13.133. On uneven bars, however, she posted a 15.766 and qualified in fourth place to the event final. She finished 22nd overall but did not qualify to the all-around final because of the two-per-country rule (Deng and Huang placed ahead of her).

In the team final, Yao scored 15.533 on bars and 14.333 for her double-twisting Yurchenko vault. China placed fourth, failing to defend its title from the 2008 Olympics. In the uneven bars final, Yao performed a nearly perfect routine with a stuck double-layout dismount. She was awarded a 15.766 and finished in fourth place, 0.15 behind bronze medalist Beth Tweddle of Great Britain.

### 2013[edit]

In September, Yao competed at the Chinese National Games and tied for gold in the all-around with Shang Chunsong. She was selected to compete at the 2013 World Championships along with Shang, Zeng Siqi and Huang Huidan.

At the World Championships, Yao qualified for the all-around and uneven bars finals. In the all-around, she performed the Mo salto on bars, an element that had not been done by a woman in World or Olympic competition since 1996, when Mo Huilan (who debuted the skill in 1994)[4] and Bi Wenjing performed it.[5] With this routine, she earned the highest uneven bars score of the day. Later, she fell on beam and finished outside of the medals, in fifth place. In the uneven bars finals, she attempted the Mo salto again, but fell and did not medal.

### 2014[edit]

In May, Yao successfully defended her all-around title at the Chinese National Championships and also won gold on the uneven bars.

In the fall, she competed at the Asian Games in Incheon, where she won gold with the team, in the all-around, and on floor exercise and uneven bars. She was selected to compete at the 2014 World Championships in Nanning, where she won the team silver with Huang, Shang, Tan Jiaxin, Bai Yawen and Chen Siyi. Individually, she finished fifth in the all-around, where Simone Biles of the United States won gold; first in the uneven bars final, her first gold medal at a World Championships, with a score of 15.633; and eighth in the balance beam finals. She was awarded the Longines Prize for Elegance and received a trophy, a Longines watch and US$5,000.[6]

### 2015[edit]

In January, it was announced that Yao would take the year off due to a shoulder injury that required surgery. She traveled to the United States for the operation.[7]

### 2016[edit]

Yao competed in the Chinese Nationals in May but failed to medal due to her shoulder injury. She was left out of the Olympic squad for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

## Personal life[edit]

Yao has a twin sister who started gymnastics training with her but did not continue to the elite level.

### Retirement[edit]

Yao retired from artistic gymnastics due to a shoulder injury

## Competitive history[edit]

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 |

## References[edit]

1. ^ "Yao Jinnan". Archived from the original on April 18, 2020. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
2. ^ Artistic hopefuls line up for action in Doha
3. ^ Turner, Amanda (2012-07-21). "Chinese Finally Finalize Women's Olympic Roster". International Gymnast Magazine Online. Retrieved 2016-08-24.
4. ^ "Mo Huilan - 1996 Olympics AA - Uneven Bars". YouTube.
5. ^ "Bi Wenjing - 1996 Olympics EF - Uneven Bars". YouTube.
6. ^ "Artistic World Championships Nanning (Nanning, China)". Longines. Longines Watch Co. Francillon Ltd. Archived from the original on 8 February 2015. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
7. ^ Hopkins, Lauren (30 January 2015). "Yao Jinnan Facing Surgery, Out for 2015". The Gymternet. Retrieved 8 February 2015.

## External links[edit]

* Yao Jinnan at the International Gymnastics Federation

* v
* t
* e

World Champions in Artistic Gymnastics – Women's Uneven Bars

* 1950:  Gertrude Kolar (AUT)
1950 Ann-Sofi Pettersson (SWE)
* 1954:  Ágnes Keleti (HUN)
* 1958:  Larisa Latynina (URS)
* 1962:  Irina Pervushina (URS)
* 1966:  Natalia Kuchinskaya (URS)
* 1970:  Karin Janz (GDR)
* 1974:  Annelore Zinke (GDR)
* 1978:  Marcia Frederick (USA)
* 1979:  Maxi Gnauck (GDR)
1979 Ma Yanhong (CHN)
* 1981:  Maxi Gnauck (GDR)
* 1983:  Maxi Gnauck (GDR)
* 1985:  Gabriele Fähnrich (GDR)
* 1987:  Daniela Silivaș (ROM)
1987 Dörte Thümmler (GDR)
* 1989:  Fan Di (CHN)
1989 Daniela Silivaș (ROM)
* 1991:  Kim Gwang-suk (PRK)
* 1992:  Lavinia Miloșovici (ROM)
* 1993:  Shannon Miller (USA)
* 1994:  Luo Li (CHN)
* 1995:  Svetlana Khorkina (RUS)
* 1996:  Svetlana Khorkina (RUS)
1996 Elena Piskun (BLR)
* 1997:  Svetlana Khorkina (RUS)
* 1999:  Svetlana Khorkina (RUS)
* 2001:  Svetlana Khorkina (RUS)
* 2002:  Courtney Kupets (USA)
* 2003:  Chellsie Memmel (USA)
2003 Hollie Vise (USA)
* 2005:  Nastia Liukin (USA)
* 2006:  Beth Tweddle (GBR)
* 2007:  Ksenia Semyonova (RUS)
* 2009:  He Kexin (CHN)
* 2010:  Beth Tweddle (GBR)
* 2011:  Viktoria Komova (RUS)
* 2013:  Huang Huidan (CHN)
* 2014:  Yao Jinnan (CHN)
* 2015:  Fan Yilin (CHN)
2015 Madison Kocian (USA)
2015 Viktoria Komova (RUS)
2015 Daria Spiridonova (RUS)
* 2017:  Fan Yilin (CHN)
* 2018:  Nina Derwael (BEL)
* 2019:  Nina Derwael (BEL)
* 2021:  Wei Xiaoyuan (CHN)
* 2022:  Wei Xiaoyuan (CHN)

* v
* t
* e

Asian Champions in Artistic Gymnastics – Women's Uneven Bars

Championships|

* 1996:  Zhou Duan (CHN)
* 2003:  Chen Miaojie (CHN)
* 2006:  He Ning (CHN)
* 2008:  Kōko Tsurumi (JPN)
* 2012:  Wu Liufang (CHN)
* 2015:  Zhu Xiaofang (CHN)
* 2017:  Luo Huan (CHN)
* 2019:  Lu Yufei (CHN)
* 2022:  Wei Xiaoyuan (CHN)

Games|

* 1974:  Jo Yoon-hi (PRK)
1974 Jiang Shaoyi (CHN)
* 1978:  Ma Yanhong (CHN)
* 1982:  Wu Jiani (CHN)
* 1986:  Huang Qun (CHN)
1986 Seo Yeon-hee (KOR)
* 1990:  Fan Di (CHN)
* 1994:  Mo Huilan (CHN)
* 1998:  Bi Wenjing (CHN)
* 2002:  Liu Xuan (CHN)
2002 Han Jong-ok (PRK)
* 2006:  Hong Su-jong (PRK)
* 2010:  He Kexin (CHN)
* 2014:  Yao Jinnan (CHN)
* 2018:  Liu Tingting (CHN)

* v
* t
* e

Asian Champions in Artistic Gymnastics – Women's Floor Exercise

Championships|

* 1996:  Meng Fei (CHN)
* 2003:  Zhang Nan (CHN)
* 2006:  He Ning (CHN)
* 2008:  Kōko Tsurumi (JPN)
* 2012:  Shang Chunsong (CHN)
* 2015:  Wang Yan (CHN)
* 2017:  Honoka Koga (JPN)
2017 Kim Su-jong (PRK)
* 2019:  Natsumi Hanashima (JPN)
* 2022:  Wu Ran (CHN)

Games|

* 1974:  Jiang Shaoyi (CHN)
* 1978:  Ma Wenju (CHN)
* 1982:  Choe Jong-sil (PRK)
* 1986:  Chen Cuiting (CHN)
* 1990:  Chen Cuiting (CHN)
* 1994:  Mo Huilan (CHN)
* 1998:  Xu Jing (CHN)
* 2002:  Oksana Chusovitina (UZB)
2002 Zhang Nan (CHN)
* 2006:  Cheng Fei (CHN)
* 2010:  Sui Lu (CHN)
* 2014:  Yao Jinnan (CHN)
* 2018:  Kim Su-jong (PRK)

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template
*[AUT]: Austria
*[SWE]: Sweden
*[HUN]: Hungary
*[URS]: Soviet Union
*[GDR]: East Germany
*[USA]: United States
*[CHN]: China
*[ROM]: Romania
*[PRK]: North Korea
*[RUS]: Russia
*[BLR]: Belarus
*[GBR]: Great Britain
*[BEL]: Belgium
*[JPN]: Japan
*[KOR]: South Korea
*[UZB]: Uzbekistan