On the junior level, he is the 2012 Youth Olympic champion, the 2012 Junior World champion, the winner of four ISU Junior Grand Prix titles, and a two-time Junior Grand Prix Final silver medalist (2010, 2011). He remains the only skater to win Junior Worlds and the Youth Olympic Games throughout the same season.
Yan started his season at the 2012 JGP Slovenia, where he finished fifth after a shattering fall on the quadruple toe loop in the free program. He then won silver, behind Maxim Kovtun at the 2012 JGP Croatia. He did not advance to the JGP Final.
Yan took silver at the 2013 Chinese Championships. He made his senior international debut at the 2013 Four Continents Championships, where he took the bronze medal. Yan ended the season placing ninth in the men's discipline and fifth with Team China at the 2013 World Team Trophy. He then flew to Toronto to work with Lori Nichol for two new programs for the upcoming season.
Yan's senior Grand Prix debut came at the 2013 Cup of China. He placed first in the short setting a personal best score of 90.14 points and placed second in the free winning the gold medal overall, ahead of Maxim Kovtun. Yan set a personal best overall score of 245.62 points. Yan finished fourth at the 2013 Trophée Éric Bompard, competing with a fever that he developed the day before his short program.[citation needed] His results qualified him for the Grand Prix Final, in which he placed sixth overall. He was selected to compete at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, where he finished seventh.[2] He then finished seventh at the 2014 World Figure Skating Championships in Saitama, Japan.
2014–2015 season: Second bronze at Four Continents
Yan's first assignment of the 2014 Grand Prix season was Cup of China. On November 8, during the free skate warm-up, he collided with Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu. Yan was visibly injured, but decided to compete. He placed seventh in the free program and sixth overall.[3][4][5] Later in the same month, he placed eighth at another Grand Prix event, the 2014 Trophee Eric Bompard.
Yan's shoulder dislocated repeatedly after he sustained a fracture.[7] As a result, he withdrew from the 2017 World Championships.
2017–2018 season
Yan's first international competition during this season was the International Cup of Nice, where he won the gold medal. For his Grand Prix assignments, Yan competed at Skate America and the Cup of China, placing fifth at both competitions. He then became the Chinese national champion and went on to place tenth at the 2018 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships. During this season, he competed in the 2018 Winter Olympics, making it his second time at the Olympics. He ranked 23rd overall.[8]
2018–2019 season
Yan did not compete internationally during the season, subsequently attributing this to both injury recovery and disappointment with his performances in recent seasons. Initially intending to travel and study, he ultimately opted to plan a return to competition.[8]
2019–2020 season
Yan won his fourth national title at the 2020 Chinese Championships in September.[8] Despite rumors of his retirement, he was initially assigned to 2019 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, but withdrew before the event. Yan was assigned to the 2019 Cup of China, where, despite performing only triple jumps, he placed first in the short program, narrowly ahead of Jin Boyang.[9] After placing second in the free skate behind Jin, he won the silver medal. Speaking afterward, he thanked the Chinese Skating Association for giving him the chance to return to competition, and said that he was somewhat surprised to be competitive for a medal without quads.[10] Yan did not receive a second Grand Prix assignment, and thus could not contend for a 2019–20 Grand Prix Final berth.
Making his return to the Four Continents Championships in February 2020, Yan placed tenth.[11] Yan was required to self-quarantine for two weeks after returning to China, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, he was not named to the team for the 2020 World Championships, despite China having two men's spots.[8]
In February 2011, a group of Chinese skaters' ages became the subject of controversy as their birth dates published on the Chinese Skating Association's website did not match the ones listed on their bio pages in the ISU website.[15] The controversy prompted a search for more discrepancies among Chinese figure skaters' dates of births. According to news articles published in February 2011, although Yan's birthday was listed as March 6, 1996 on ISU's website, the Chinese website suggested that he was born on that day in 1994. Officials from the State General Administration of Sports held a press conference where they attributed the discrepancies to erroneous information provided by the Chinese website.[16][17][18][19]
