Zou Jingyuan was born 3 January 1998 in Yibin, Sichuan, China. He started gymnastics at the age of three when he was scouted by a coach because of his good physical condition.[1]
The General Administration of Sport of China named Zou an Elite Athlete of National Class in 2016.[1]
In May 2017, Zou competed at the Asian Championships in Bangkok, Thailand, where his team won gold.[1] He won first on parallel bars and rings, as well as second on pommel horse.[1]
In October, Zou competed at the World Championships in Montreal, Canada, where he placed first on parallel bars.[1]
In August, Zou competed at the Asian Games in Indonesia, where his team won first.[1] Zou placed first on parallel bars and second on pommel horse.[1][2]
In October, Zou competed at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar, where the team placed first.[1] Zou placed first on parallel bars.[1]
Zou competed at the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, where his team placed second.[1] He failed to qualify for the parallel bars event final after an error in qualifying,[3] but his team final parallel bars score of 16.383 was the highest score of the competition.[4]
At the 2020 Summer OlympicsinTokyo, Japan, Zou competed for the People's Republic of China, a team including Sun Wei, Zou Jingyuan, Xiao Ruoteng, and Lin Chaopan.[5] The team won Olympic bronze with a combined score of 262.397, 0.606 points beneath the winning team.[6] Zou won Olympic gold on parallel bars with a score of 16.233,[7] the highest score and widest margin of victory (0.533) posted by any gymnast in any event at the Tokyo Olympics.[8][9]
Zou competed on parallel bars and rings for China at the World Championships in Liverpool, winning gold in the team event,[10] gold on parallel bars,[11] and silver on rings behind gold medalist Adem Asil.[12] His score in the parallel bars final of 16.166 was the highest score posted by a gymnast at the competition. He added a new named element on rings during qualifications, the Zou: the gymnast lowers slowly from inverted cross to inverted hang and felges backward slowly to V cross, holding for 2 seconds. The Zou has an E value.[13]