Xu and Burov awarded with aerials World Cup titles
Mar 10, 2022·Freestyle
Following the FIS decision to cancel all remaining World Cup events scheduled to take place in Russia in 2021/22, the FIS Freestyle Ski Aerials World Cup has come to a premature conclusion.
With both events in Yaroslavl and Moscow called off, and the World Cup finals in Shymbulak (KAZ) falling off the calendar earlier in the season, the 2021/22 World Cup tour consisted of six individual events as well as two team competitions, all before what would end up being the pinnacle aerials showdowns of the season took place at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games in February.
On the women’s side of things Xu Mengtao (CHN) won her career’s sixth aerials World Cup crystal globe after the Chinese veteran collected 385 points on the strength of two victories, one second place and one third place finish, along with victories for herself and her Chinese teammates in both team events that took place in 2021/22.
It was exciting to see one of the sport’s greatest athletes return to competition, after the Chinese team decided not to participate at Word Cup in 2020/21 due to the pandemic. But despite missing out on the entire last season, Xu came back even stronger this year, reclaiming the World Cup title while putting some impressive achievements in the freestyle history books, and the 31-year-old was a leading force pushing the Chinese aerials team to an extremely successful season.
Xu kicked off the season strong in Ruka back in December, where she moved clear of Aussie legend Jacqui Copper in the all-time ranking for most World Cup victories, after claiming her 26th top spot. Now, almost three months later Xu has set 27 victories as her record, and with her career’s 6th aerials crystal globe she also moved clear of Copper in the all-time ranking for most aerials World Cup titles.
Xu has podiums in 49 of 71 career World Cup starts, as well as a medal from every World Championships competition she has ever competed in, making her not only one of the most explosive athletes in all of aerials, but arguably the most consistent as well.
On top of that Xu also delivered at the home at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, where she also wrote a piece of history and became the first freestyle skier to win two medals at a single Games - with her silver medal in mixed team event and her gold in individual competition just a couple of days later.
Finishing the World Cup season just behind Xu in second place was her teammate Kong Fanyu, who gathered 361 points with one victory, two second places, and one third place finish.
The 2020/21 World Cup champion Laura Peel (AUS) rounded out the 2021/22 season podium in third place with 294 points, with one victory and one runner up spot in 2021/22.
Moving over to the men’s side it was Maxim Burov (RUS), who managed to defend his title, claiming his career’s third crystal globe. Despite missing last two World Cup stops in Le Relais and Deer Valley, as his team did not travel over to North America, Burov still managed to remain ahead of everyone else on top of the aerials World Cup ranking following his perfect streak of four victories in two weeks in Ruka back in December.
Similarly to what he showcased last season, again in 2021/22 Burov was unstoppable, leading the way with some of the highest jumps scores we’ve seen in the recent past. In the last ten individual World Cup events in which Burov participated, dating back to 2020 Ruka Freestyle Ski Opening, Burov claimed a total of nine victories.
Again this season Burov impressed with his consistent, elite execution, and with his third World Cup title he’s now only one crystal globe away from tying Steve Omischl and Nicolas Fontaine in men’s all-time rankings.
With Xu and Kong shining on the women’s side, also the men’s Chinese contingent performed exceptionally well in 2021/22.
While the Chinese squad of top-tier athletes couldn’t overthrown Burov on top of the aerials ranking, fully five Chinese athletes finished the season in the World Cup top-7, with Qi Guangpu put a cherry on top of the cake for his team with his gold medal performance at the 2022 Beijing OWG.
But it wasn’t Qi who showed the best consistency among his teammates during the World Cup campaign, as it was Sun Jiaxu finishing in second overall behind Burov, as the Chinese skier gathered 266 points following his strong campaign in North America, where he won the competition in Le Relais and took the third place in Deer Valley.
The member of the Beijing 2022 silver medal-winning team along Xu and Qi, Jia Zongyang rounded out the men’s overall aerials World Cup podium in third place with 251 points following his two runner up positions in Ruka to cap off what was a pretty successful season for the 31-year-old veteran.
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