His desire for risky jumps quickly brought him the nickname "King of Difficulty" amongst teammates.

[2] Shortly after his international debut, he became the first one in history to accomplish a dive with difficulty of 4.1 since the regulation was introduced and set a world record for a single jump to 123 points.

But in the following year, Yang finished his first tour to the world championships due to knee injury with the unexpected 10th place.

Another right heel injury during training in November 2018 forced him to take surgery and rest for a month.

[3] In 2021, Yang won a silver medal in the 10m platform event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.