Yao Jinnan

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Yao Jinnan
Full nameYao Jinnan
Country representedFlag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China
Born (1995-02-08) February 8, 1995 (age 29)
Fuzhou, Fujian, China
Height145 cm (4 ft 9 in) [1]
Discipline Women's artistic gymnastics
LevelSenior
Years on national team2011–16 (CHN)
Head coach(es)王群策 (Wang Qunce)、徐惊雷 (Xu Jinglei)
Music2010-2011 - West Side Story

2012-2013 - A for Angel
2014 Chinese Nationals - Sphynx

2014 Worlds - The Question of U by

Contents

Prince
Medal record
Representing Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China
World Championships
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2014 Nanning Uneven Bars
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2011 Tokyo Balance Beam
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2014 Nanning Team
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2011 Tokyo Team
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2011 Tokyo All-Around
Asian Games
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2014 Incheon Team
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2014 Incheon All-Around
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2014 Incheon Uneven Bars
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 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

2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Retirement

Yao retired from artistic gymnastics due to a shoulder injury

Competitive history

YearEventTeamAA VT UB BB FX
2010National Championships4th4th7th6th
2011Cottbus World Cup1st1st1st
Doha World Cup1st4th1st
National Championships2nd2nd3rd
Japan Cup1st3rd
World Championships 3rd3rd2nd4th
2012Zibo World Cup1st1st
Olympic Games 4th4th
2013 National Championships 7th1st3rd5th3rd
National Games6th1st2nd7th
World Championships 5th6th
Stuttgart World Cup1st
2014 National Championships 5th1st1st7th2nd
Asian Games 1st1st1st1st
World Championships 2nd5th1st8th

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References

  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 . 30 September 2006.
  5. ↑ "Bi Wenjing - 1996 Olympics EF - Uneven Bars". YouTube . October 2006.
  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.
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