Chinese media reported that she was born Yao Li (Chinese: 姚丽; pinyin: Yáo Lì, Dungan: Йо Ли) in Tayingzi Village, Wuhuanchi Town, Fuxin Mongol Autonomous County, Liaoning Province, and emigrated to Kazakhstan in 2008 along with Zulfiya Chinshanlo with the approval of Hunan sport officials on a lease contract.

[3] Following her Olympic medal win the People's Republic of China government news agency, Xinhua claimed that Maneza and fellow weightlifter Zulfiya Chinshanlo should be regarded as Chinese.

[4] In June 2016, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) announced that retests of the samples taken from the 2012 London Games indicated that Maneza had tested positive for prohibited substances, namely stanazolol.

The samples of three other Kazakhstanis also returned positive test results upon re-analysis: Zulfiya Chinshanlo, Svetlana Podobedova and Ilya Ilyin.

[7] The IOC also disqualified Maneza from the 2008 Olympic Games for failing a drugs test in a re-analysis of her doping sample from 2008, even though she withdrew from the competition before it was held.