Zhou Yaqin is a young and upcoming Chinese gymnast who recently won a silver in balance beam at the Paris 2024 Olympics, find out more about her along with her age and height
The teenager recently went viral for her actions at the Olympics podium following the balance beam final event.
Who is Chinese gymnast Zhou Yaqin as her reaction video goes viral from the 2024 Olympics, bio, age, height and medals list
Zhou was shocked to see gold medal winner Alice D’Amato and bronze medal winner Manila Esposito biting down on their medals.
The youngster was seemingly unfamiliar with the tradition and proceeded to mimick their gestures by bringing her medal to her lips, without actually biting it. The whole interaction has sparked many memes, with some netizens commenting on her “Golden Retriever behavior” and “little sister” energy.
Zhou Yaqin bio
Zhou Yaqin is a Chinese artistic gymnast who was born on November 12, 2005, in Hengyang, Hunan, China. She began taking an interest gymnastics in Hengyang when she was just three years old. Zhou is currently 18-years-old, and holds the silver medal in the 2024 Olympic and 2023 World in balance beam with her height at 4 feet 10 inches.
Zhou Yaqin had absolutely no idea what was happening and was just happy to be there. pic.twitter.com/RwjxXGbXDI
— Ben (@Jamin2g) August 5, 2024
Club and coach
Zhou Yaqin is a member of the Hunan Province club and trains under head coaches Jiang Suchun, and Wang Liming.
Junior career
Zhou Yaqin started out competing with the Hunan provincial team at the 2019 Chinese Championships finishing at sixth. She then competed at the China National Youth Games, finishing in 14th in the all-around. Zhou then finished in 13th place in the all-around at the 2019 Chinese Individual Championships.
The young Chinese artistic gymnast eventually made her international debut at the 2019 Olympic Hopes Cup in Liberec, Czech Republic. She was a part of the Chinese team that won the gold medal. In the individual event, she finished seventh in the all-around and eighth in the floor exercise final. She the competed at the 2020 Chinese Championships, finishing in 17th in the all-around. She finally won a gold at the Chinese Individual Championships, on the balance beam with a score of 15.066.
Senior career
Zhou Yaqin qualified to compete in the senior level in 2021, making her debut at the Chinese Championships. She finished 23rd in the all-around qualification round and sixth with the Hunan provincial team. Zhou then won a gold at the 2021 National Games of China on the balance beam with a 14.660 score. She came close to a medal win, finishing at fourth on the balance beam at the 2022 Chinese Championships. Zhou managed to win a gold on the floor exercise at the 2023 Chinese Championships
She finally made her senior international debut during the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp. She was part of the Chinese team that placed fourth in the team final. In the individual events, she won a silver behind Simone Biles in the balance beam final.
Zhou Yaqin began the 2024 season with a gold medal win at the Cottbus World Cup, on both the balance beam and floor exercise. She won another gold at the DTB Pokal Team Challenge with the Chinese team. As a result, she got selected to represent China at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Zhou managed to qualify for the balance beam final in first place but fell off twice during the team final. The Chinese team eventually finished in sixth place. However, she found success in the individual balance beam final, where she won a silver medal behind Italy’s Alice D’Amato.