Zhang Jin was born on 25 November 2000 in Shanghai. She began gymnastics when she was four years old.[2]
Junior career
Zhang competed on the vault and the balance beam at the 2014 Chinese Championships and helped the Shanghai team finish fourth.[3] She made her international debut at the 2015 Austrian Team Open and helped the Chinese team win the gold medal.[4] Then at the 2015 Chinese Championships, she won the silver medal in the team event and finished twenty-second in the all-around final.[5] At the 2015 National Youth Games, Zhang helped her provincial team finish fourth.[6] She then competed at the 2015 Olympic Hopes Cup in Liberec and won the silver medal with the Chinese team and the bronze medal in the all-around.[7]
Senior career
2016
Zhang made her senior debut at the Olympic Test Event in Rio de Janeiro where she finished seventeenth in the all-around with a total score of 54.316.[8] Then at the Chinese Championships she won the bronze medal in the team event and placed tenth in the all-around. She was not named to China's 2016 Olympic team. In October, she competed at the Chinese Individual Championships but did not advance into any event finals.[9]
2017
Zhang finished sixth in the all-around at the Stuttgart World Cup.[10] Then at the Chinese Championships, she finished eighth in the all-around.[11] At the National Games, she won the bronze medal with the Shanghai team. Individually, she finished tenth in the all-around, seventh on vault and floor exercise.[12] She finished her season at the Chinese Individual Championships where she won gold on the floor exercise, silver on the vault, and bronze on the balance beam.[13]
2018
Zhang won the gold medal in the all-around at the Stuttgart World Cup with a total score of 53.431.[2][14] Then at the Chinese Championships, she won the silver medal in the all-around behind Luo Huan and placed fourth on the balance beam.[15] She was selected to represent China at the 2018 Asian Games alongside Chen Yile, Liu Jinru, Liu Tingting, and Luo Huan, and they won the team gold medal. Then in the balance beam final, she won the bronze medal behind Yile and Kim Su-jong.[16] The same team was then selected to compete at the World Championships.[17] Although Zhang fell on the balance beam, the team won the bronze medal. On her mistake in the team final, she stated, "I am a little bit disappointed. [The] uneven bars were good. We made one mistake but didn't drop too many points. I was not worried about balance beam before the competition because usually we are very good, but it wasn't good."[18] In the balance beam final, she fell twice and finished last with a score of 11.500.[19]
2019
Zhang helped the Chinese team win the silver medal at the City of Jesolo Trophy. Individually, she finished sixth in the all-around and fourth on the balance beam and floor exercise.[20] Then at the Chinese Championships, she finished ninth in the all-around and seventh on the floor exercise.[21]
2020
In March, Zhang competed at the American Cup and finished ninth in the all-around.[22] She was scheduled to compete at the Birmingham World Cup, but the event was postponed and eventually canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[23][24][25] In September, she competed at the postponed Chinese Championships and finished seventh in the all-around.[26] She ended the season at the Friendship and Solidarity Competition, which was held under strict COVID-19 safety protocols in Tokyo in November. She competed on all four events to help Team Solidarity win gold.[27]
During the qualification round, Zhang competed on all four events to help the Chinese team qualify in third place.[32] Then in the team final, Zhang contributed scores of 14.066 on vault, 13.900 on balance beam, and 13.133 on floor exercise towards the team's seventh-place finish.[33] After the Olympics, she competed at the National Games where she finished fifth in the all-around and fourth on the floor exercise.[34]
2022
Zhang competed at the 2022 Asian Championships in June. While there she helped China place first as a team. Individually she won gold in the all-around and bronze on balance beam.[35]
^ ab"Zhang Jin". Asian Games 2018 Jakarta Palembang. Archived from the original on 1 November 2018. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
^ ab"人们叫她天才少女，章瑾却说是体操让她学会坚强，"怕了累了就咬咬牙"" [People call her a genius girl, but Zhang Jin said that gymnastics taught her to be strong, "Grit your teeth when you are afraid"] (in Chinese). 搜狐体育 - 搜狐网. 11 April 2018. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
^Lu, Yuchen; Shen, Nan; Niu, Mengtong (3 July 2021). "步步为赢——中国体操队东京奥运会大名单诞生记" [Step-by-step to win – the creation of the Chinese gymnastics squad for the Tokyo Olympics]. Xinhua (in Chinese).
