Ou Yushan

Ou debuted at the senior-level Chinese National Championships, helping the Guangdong team to the gold medals in the women's team and mixed team competitions.[2]

Ou again represented Guangdong province at the Chinese National Championships. In the all-around, a fall on the uneven bars sunk her chances for the all-around gold, pushing her down to fourth place at that point, but after performing well on the balance beam she finished in the bronze position.[2][3][4] She also won three more individual medals: gold on the balance beam,[5] silver on the floor behind Shang Chunsong[6] and bronze on the uneven bars behind Liu Tingting and Cheng Shiyi.[7] Additionally, Ou and Liu led the Guandong province to win another gold in the provincial team final.[4]

In June Ou was selected to represent China at the inaugural Junior World Championships alongside Wei Xiaoyuan and Guan Chenchen. While there, she helped China finish second in team final, behind Russia and ahead of the United States. Individually Ou finished third in the all-around behind Russians Viktoria Listunova and Vladislava Urazova and won silver on floor exercise once again behind Listunova. She also placed fifth on uneven bars and eighth on balance beam after a fall.[8]

Team / All-Around Final

Uneven Bars Final

Floor Exercise Final

Ou at the 2019 Junior World Championships

She concluded her season with a strong performance at the second Chinese National Youth Games. She won three gold medals: team, balance beam, and floor exercise. She also won silver in the all-around and on uneven bars, both behind Wei Xiaoyuan, and won bronze on vault behind Guan Chenchen and Zhang Silei.[9][10][11][12][13][14]

After the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ou increased expectations for her senior debut by showing upgrades on all four events at an internal test in early September.[15] She notably attempted a balance beam routine with a start value of 7.5, which was more than a point higher than the 6.4 start value of Simone Biles' winning routine at the 2019 World Championships.[16] She also showed a new double-twisting Yurchenko vault and stuck a new Silivas (double-twisting double tuck) on floor to win the internal test ahead of reigning World all-around silver medalist Tang Xijing.[17][18] However, a knee injury forced Ou to withdraw from the Chinese National Championships a few weeks later.[19]