Yanjaa Explained

Yanjaa
Birth Place:Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Occupation:Mnemonist, television personality
Years Active:2014–2015, 2017-18
Sport:Memory
Rank:No. 8 (Dec. 2018), International Grand Master of Memory
Worlds:18th overall (2014), 8th place (2015), 3rd overall (2017)
Nationals:Bronze medal (2014), Silver medal (2015)
Highestranking:No. 7 (September 2018)

Yänjaa Wintersoul, sometimes known as simply Yanjaa,[1] is a Mongolian–Swedish triple world record-breaking memory champion and polyglot. She is one of only 22 international grandmasters of memory.[2] She first rose to prominence in memory sports in 2014 by winning the team gold medal as well as first place in names and faces at the World Memory Championships 2014 in Haikou, China during her first year of memory training.[3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

In December 2017, she broke two world records at the 2017 World Memory Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia by memorizing 212 names and faces in 15 minutes and 354 random images in 5 minutes. In August 2018, Yanjaa broke a third world record at the Korean Memory Championships 2018 by memorizing 145 random words in 5 minutes.

Yanjaa and Mongolian teammate Munkhshur Narmandakh became the first women in history to place at the world event, placing in bronze and silver position respectively out of over 130 contestants.[8]

Early life and education

Yanjaa was born in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to a Buryat-Mongolian mother and a Khalkha-Mongolian father. She grew up in Mongolia, Stockholm, Tokyo and attended boarding school in Kenya at the Swedish School of Nairobi where she studied Swahili and philosophy.[9] Yanjaa graduated from Stockholm Business School with a degree in Business and Economics, where she was an active member of the student council marketing team.[10] She also attended the University of Uppsala to study art history during this time.

Career

Yanjaa was originally inspired to compete in memory after reading Moonwalking with Einstein by American author and former US memory champion Joshua Foer. She entered her first memory competition two months after reading it, receiving the newcomer award and placing first in the discipline names and faces at a German Open Memory competition in Munich, Germany.[11] She has since medalled in a number of competitions as well as broken numerous memory records (see Records). In 2015 Yanjaa was invited as one of the top 200 Leaders of Tomorrow at the 46th St. Gallen Symposium in St. Gallen, Switzerland for her achievements in memory sports at a young age.[12]

In 2015 Yanjaa starred in the Swedish documentary Masterminds, following the moments leading up to the Swedish Memory Championships 2014 where she placed second overall. Yanjaa was featured in the 2016 documentary How to Remember Everything, which covered the 2014 World Memory Championships in Haikou, China.[13] Yanjaa was invited to speak at Investor AB's 100th anniversary, where she demonstrated recall of 10 of the 100 names and faces she had to memorize. She has also been interviewed and featured for memory training and language learning on Today, The Guardian, Wired as well as numerous national media publications in Sweden, China and Mongolia.[14] [15] [16]

Yanjaa was a contestant on the final season of the Chinese television program The Brain in 2017, defeating her opponent Yu Yipei by memorizing more synthesized images winning on accuracy over speed.[17] [18] [19] [20] She was a contestant on the 2017 comeback season of the talent show Talang, the Swedish version of Got Talent. In the audition round, Yanjaa received the golden buzzer from judge Alexander Bard and immediately advanced to the semi-finals by memorizing twenty names and faces in 90 seconds. After a successful semi-finals round in which she memorized 30 digits in 30 seconds, she advanced to the finals where she ended up in fifth place.[21]

In September 2017 Yanjaa was featured as the "IKEA Human Catalogue 2018", having memorized the entire catalogue in just a week before the launch of the new catalogue. The campaign was a success landing press conferences in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore and multiple appearances on the Steve Harvey show and other talk shows.[22] [23] [24] In May 2018, the campaign was voted as people's voice and the official jury's Webby Award for best social media ad campaign.[25] In 2017, she began production for a documentary called Memory Games with Emmy Award-winning director Janet Tobias.[26] [27] [28] The documentary premiered in New York in November 2018. An additional screening was scheduled because the premiere sold out. Memory Games was bought by Netflix and launched on June 19, 2019.[29] Yanjaa was featured in her second Netflix project on September 11, 2019. The Mind, Explained is a limited series narrated by Emma Stone in collaboration with Vox Media.[30]

Notable competitions

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

Records

As of September 11, 2018, Yanjaa holds 3 world records, 6 national records and ranks 7th in the world as a memory athlete.[34] [35] [36]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: How to avoid losing your memory in the digital age Memory The Guardian . 2023-07-03 . amp.theguardian.com.
  2. Web site: Special Title. iam-stats.com. 2017-04-18.
  3. News: Så förbättrar du minnet. NÖJESGUIDEN. 2017-04-18. sv.
  4. News: Yanjaa: Jag minns vartenda ansikte och namn. Året Runt. 2017-04-18.
  5. News: Yanjaa är minnesvärldsmästare – Kossornas planet. Radio. Sveriges. Sveriges Radio . August 14, 2015 . 2017-04-18.
  6. News: Yanjaa tävlar i Minnes-SM – P4 Stockholm. Radio. Sveriges. Sveriges Radio . September 18, 2014 . 2017-04-18.
  7. News: 2014 World Memory Championships ~ 12th–14th December – Dominic O'Brien. October 22, 2015. Dominic O'Brien. 2017-04-18. en-GB.
  8. Web site: World Memory Championships 2017 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
  9. Web site: AMA African living in Africa. Ask me anything you need to know about living in the 3rd World. Been here all my life. • r/IAmA. reddit. en. 2017-04-18.
  10. News: Yanjaa. September 6, 2013. The SBS Student Blog. 2017-04-18. en-US.
  11. Web site: Yanjaa. www.facebook.com. en. 2017-04-18.
  12. News: St. Gallen Symposium Magazine 46. issuu. 2017-04-18. en.
  13. News: How to Remember Everything! New ITV film – The World Memory Championships. December 1, 2016. The World Memory Championships. 2017-04-18. en-GB.
  14. News: Svensk 21-åring satte världsrekord i minnestävling – DN.SE. August 24, 2015. DN.SE. 2017-04-18. sv-se.
  15. Web site: Yanjaa Wintersoul får det omöjliga att hända i Talang. www.msn.com. 2017-04-18.
  16. News: Två världsrekord för minnesmästaren från Stockholm. Nyheter. SVT. svt.se. 2017-04-18. sv.
  17. Web site: 《最强大脑》妍佳，这个女人不简单！-兴趣部落. buluo.qq.com. 2017-04-18.
  18. Web site: 最强大脑第四季国际赛余奕沛对阵妍佳结果谁赢了 最强大脑第四季挑战基因密码项目解析. www.chinazwh.com. 2017-04-18.
  19. Web site: 最强大脑第四季余奕沛赢了妍佳了吗 瑞典选手妍佳资料介绍. April 1, 2017. www.temai123.com. 2017-04-18.
  20. Web site: 最强大脑第四季国际赛余奕沛PK妍佳什么项目结果如何谁赢了 最强大脑第四季挑战基因密码项目解析_体育小百科. www.gz2010.cn. 2017-04-18.
  21. News: Yanjaa Wintersoul får det omöjliga att hända i Talang 2017 – Talang – tv4.se. 2017-04-18. sv.
  22. News: 2,000 items in Ikea catalogue too easy for memory champion Yanjaa Wintersoul. hermes. October 16, 2017. The Straits Times. 2017-12-06. en.
  23. News: Exam study tips from a two-time world memory champ who's also IKEA's first human catalogue. Channel NewsAsia. 2017-12-06. en-US.
  24. News: This woman only needed a week to memorise all 328 pages of Ikea's catalogue. Tan. Yvette. Mashable. 2017-12-06. en.
  25. News: The IKEA Human Catalogue The Webby Awards. 2018-06-05. en-US.
  26. Web site: Memory Games – Momentofilm. momentofilm.se. April 15, 2017 . en. 2017-04-18.
  27. Web site: Memory Games. www.sfi.se. en-GB. 2017-04-18.
  28. Web site: In Production. Sierra Tango. en-US. 2017-04-18.
  29. Web site: Memory Games Netflix. www.netflix.com. en. 2019-07-02.
  30. Web site: Vox's Explained Returns to Netflix with Emma Stone-narrated Limited Series. September 12, 2019. Vox Media. en. 2019-11-19.
  31. Web site: 1st Spanish Open Memory Championship 2014. iam-stats.com. 2017-04-18.
  32. Web site: Japan Open Statistics and Final Results.
  33. Web site: 2nd Korea OPEN Champs 2018 Overall Results. Fong. Andy. September 11, 2018. Global Alliance of Memory Results & Statistics.
  34. Web site: World Records. iam-stats.com. 2017-12-06.
  35. Web site: Ranking – Mongolia Records. iam-stats.com. 2017-12-06.
  36. Web site: World Ranking. iam-stats.com. 2017-12-06.

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