Female swimmer Ruan Yi was born in July 1981 in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. She entered Zhejiang provincial swimming team in 1994.

In 1997, she won the gold medals in women’s 200m butterfly, 200m medley and 100m butterfly at the National Short Course Swimming Championships.

She won three silver medals in women’s 100m butterfly, 200m butterfly and 4×100m medley relay at the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games.