Qi Guangpu with gold in men’s aerials
Feb 16, 2022·Freestyle
The final event on the Genting’s Moguls & Aerials venue went down in style on Wednesday, February 16, where home fans’ favourite Qi Guangpu (CHN) won the men’s individual competition, adding a gold to the silver he took in the aerials mixed tea event.
His highly difficult back double full-full-double full - a quintuple twist with three flips - scored 129 points.
“Five of the six competitors have the most difficult jump,” Qi said. “They are very courageous because of their determination to challenge that high-difficulty jump. It inspired me to also challenge that same jump.”
All but one skier went for a 5.000 degree of difficulty on their last jump but it was Qi who executed best, distancing himself from the field by a significant margin. The four-time Olympian beat silver medallist Oleksandr Abramenko (UKR) by more than 12 points.
“Every trick in this competition is very important and very impressive. I did my best. During the competition, almost every competitor did their best, so every trick was very wonderful.”
By taking one step up the podium, Qi follows mixed team aerials teammate Xu Mengtao, who won gold over in women’s contest.
QI’s gold is the fourth gold and 16th medal for China in freestyle skiing. Three of these golds have come at Beijing 2022, with only one prior gold won by Han Xiaopeng (CHN) in men’s aerials in 2006.
All but two of China’s 16 medals in freestyle skiing have come in aerials events.
With its three gold medals, China leads all nations at Beijing 2022 in freestyle skiing. It also has won five medals, trailing only the United States, with six.
Abramenko failed to defend his Olympic title but he did take Ukraine’s first medal at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.
"It was an amazing competition today,” said Abramenko. “I’m so happy for this silver and really proud of myself that I've won the first medal for Ukraine at these Games.”
"The qualifications were hard for me last night, but I went for it and got through to today's finals. The weather was the same as yesterday, very cold, -20 degrees, but it was OK.”
"I'm really happy that I made my five twists, although the landing was not really good, but enough for second place."
At 31 years, 119 days, Qi became the oldest aerials’ gold medallist and Abramenko, aged 33 years, 288 days, become the oldest medallist.
Ilia Burov (ROC) was the lone competitor to jump at a lower difficulty, but with a clean landing he secured bronze with 114.93 points.
"I'm so happy that I could win a medal again, another bronze after four years, said Burov, "It feels so good."
Jia Zongyang (CHN), who took silver with Qi and Xx in the team event, missed out on the super final by 0.08 points and the chance to become the first person to claim four Olympic Games medals in aerials.
Pirmin Werner (SUI) finished the competition just behind the podium in fourth place, while mixed team gold medallists Justin Schoenefeld and Christopher Lillis (USA) rounded out the super final’s top-6 in fifth and sixth, respectively.
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