‘Better than my Olympic jump’: Xu delivers at home to win in Beidahu
Feb 23, 2025·Freestyle
Xu Mengtao (CHN) is no stranger to pressure. After all, over her storied career, she has delivered countless times while shouldering heavy expectations.
She did that again on Sunday at the Beidahu World Cup, putting on a clutch jump when called upon to finish head and shoulders above her competition.
Landing the back full-full-full in the superfinal led to a massive score of 114.19 points, as well as an exuberant scream from the 34-year-old. Xu finished ahead of teammate Chen Meiting (CHN), who was also stellar with 109.04 and Danielle Scott (AUS), who was third with 89.18.
Xu had scraped into the superfinal, qualifying at the bottom of the top six skiers.
But she has long shown that she is a competitor at heart. At the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games, with the weight of a nation upon her, she had also withstood immense pressure to take gold on home snow.
Her triples in the superfinal on Sunday at Beidahu, however, was in a league of its own. Even Xu herself described it as even better than her gold-winning jump at the 2022 Games.
“This is my lucky place. I did a very good job here the last time a World Cup was held here too.”
Indeed, Xu was the top finisher at the 2016 edition, a testament to her consistency and longevity of career. Australia’s Scott was also on the podium then – she was third that year.
Australia’s Laura Peel (AUS) did not make the superfinal, but still holds the Aerials yellow bib after her run of consistent results.
Li makes statement with first World Cup win
In the men’s contest, Li Tianma (CHN) picked a big occasion to make a huge statement en route to winning his first World Cup.
The 23-year-old stomped a back double full-double full-full for a huge score of 130.56. It was a showing that put him ahead of 2022 Olympic champion Qi Guangpu (CHN), who was second with 119.00.
Christopher Lillis (USA) followed in third with 115.93 points.
Said Li: “I felt very good today. I just made a little bit of adjustments in my jumps. This is my first time getting a win at the World Cup. Everyone performed very well too.”
The Beidahu Ski Resort will host one more day of World Cup competition on Monday. Team Aerials will begin from 14:00.
QUICK LINKS
Beidahu World Cup FIS data page (start lists, results, etc)
Photos: Aerials
)
)
