Shannon Williams-Yancey was a four-time World silver medalist and competed in seven World Championships.

She reached the finals at the World Championships in 1991, 1993, 1994 and 1997 while finishing fourth in 1990 and 1995 and fifth in 1996. A six-time World Team Trials champion and a four-time U.S. National champion, Williams won gold medals at the Pan American Championships in 1993 and 1998 and won the Klippan Open in Sweden in 1993, 1994 and 1996.

USA Wrestling named Williams-Yancey its Women's Wrestler of the Year in 1994 and she became the first female featured on the cover of USA Wrestler magazine.

The daughter of a wrestler, she competed for two years on the boys team at Chaffey High School in Ontario, California. While preparing for women's international tournaments, she would work out with men's wrestlers from Lassen Junior College and Chico State.

She was an assistant coach for the United States at the 1999 Women's World Championships, which was the first U.S. women's team to win the World team title. Sandra Bacher and Tricia Saunders won gold medals while Kristie Davis also reached the finals.

Williams-Yancey competed in 1992 on American Gladiators and advanced to the quarterfinals.

She was an assistant coach for the boys team at Wooster High School in Nevada and was head coach of the all-girls team at Thousand Oaks High School in California. One of the original female members of the Sunkist Kids wrestling club, she also served on USA Wrestling's Board of Directors.

Williams-Yancey has been a lifetime advocate of women's wrestling and a popular girls wrestling tournament in California is named in her honor, the Williams Cup. She currently coaches wrestling while also teaching yoga and self-defense classes at Heritage High School in Brentwood. Heritage boasts one of the largest rosters of female wrestlers in the state of California.