[2] Early in her career, she trained in northern Kentucky, coached by Stephanie Miller and Ted Masdea.

At Nationals, she placed third in the short program[16] and second in the free skating,[17] winning the bronze medal overall.

She won the bronze medal at the 2009–10 ISU Junior Grand Prix event in Poland with an overall score of 134.55 points.

At the 2010 U.S. Championships in January 2010, she placed fifth in the short program with a score 56.26 points and fifth in the free skate with 100.27.

Gao was assigned to the 2010–11 ISU Junior Grand Prix events in Austria and Japan.

Gao withdrew from the competition in Japan but was reassigned to Germany based on her result in Austria.

Those placements qualified her for the 2010–11 ISU Junior Grand Prix Final, where she came in sixth position earning 145.01 points.

[3][23] After winning the silver medal at the 2012 Skate America,[24] Gao placed fourth at the 2012 Trophée Éric Bompard.

[25] In late November, ISU officials announced that she would compete at the 2012–13 Grand Prix Final, replacing Yulia Lipnitskaya who withdrew from the event due to injuries.

[27] She was fifth at the 2013 U.S. Championships and was named in the United States team to the 2013 Four Continents in Osaka, Japan where she finished 4th and was the highest ranking American at the event ahead of teammates Gracie Gold and Agnes Zawadzki.

Gao opened her 2013-2014 season by winning the bronze medal at the 2013 Ondrej Nepela Trophy behind Russian Nikol Gosviani.