The first major international event for Zhao took place in January 2007 at the Junior World Championships in Mladá Boleslav . Here she achieved several very good placements straight away, including second on the 500 meter course and third over 1000 meters. Overall, she reached fourth place in the all-round competition, with the relay she even won the silver medal. After all, at the age of 17 she started the Short Track World Cup for the first time , where she immediately achieved several top 5 placements. At the end of the season, she had four individual podium finishes in the 500 meter distance, including two second places. Overall, she came third in the discipline world cup on this route behind her compatriots Wang Meng and Fu Tianyu . In addition, Zhao won five of six World Cup races with the Chinese relay. She did not start at major events in the 2007/08 season.
Zhao also started the Short Track World Cup 2008/09 well with another third place on the sprint distance of 500 meters. There were also four relay World Cup victories.
At the team world championships in 2008 in Harbin , she was world champion with the Chinese team. At the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver , she fell in the middle of the last heat over 500 m and finished the race more than 15 seconds behind. The Chinese team initially protested against this. However, the referees ruled that there was no obstruction, so Zhao fell without outside interference.
Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Zhao is the family name here, Nannan is the first name.
People's Republic of China
