With the end of the World Cup in Mammoth Mountain in the United States on January 9, Beijing time, Chinese female player Gu Ailing reached the top and won the overall championship of the season. At this point, the four races of the Fidesia Freestyle Ski U-Shaped World Cup this season have all ended, and the Chinese athletes have directly won the qualification for the Beijing Winter Olympics with 4 women and 3 men, with a total of 7 Winter Olympic tickets.
Gu Ailing "thrives"
This season on the freestyle ski U-shaped field, it is not too much to describe Gu Ailing's performance as "thriving".
In the final match of the Freestyle Ski U-Shaped World Cup held on January 9, Beijing time, Gu Ailing was in excellent form from the first round of the competition, receiving a high score of 94.75 and ranking first. In the second round of the competition, he continued to improve the difficulty of his movements, successfully completed two air turns of 900 degrees and landed smoothly, and finally scored 97.50 points, getting the highest score of the season and winning the championship.
This season's freestyle ski U-track World Cup has a total of four races, Gu Ailing has a bright performance at each station, successively in the United States Copper Mountain Station, Canada Calgary Station (two races), the United States Mammoth Mountain Station to the top, with an unbeaten record to win the season championship, successfully won the crystal ball. The official praise of the International Ski Federation is Gu Ailing, "The women's U-shaped pool competition so far, this is the most perfect performance in history!" ”
Gu Ailing was also excited to get a high score of 97.50 points, "This is the highest score in my history." This was my most wonderful performance, and I was looking forward to having such a performance before the Winter Olympics. This season's U-shaped venue four-stop World Cup victory to pick up the crystal ball, Gu Ailing showed a good competitive state before the Winter Olympics, looking forward to the Winter Olympics Gu Ailing said: "I will participate in the Winter Olympics for the first time, I hope I can enjoy the whole process, don't forget that I am doing my favorite thing, which is full of fun in itself, don't put too much pressure on yourself." ”
Women get full tickets
Zhang Kexin (data map)
Compared with Gu Ailing's "thriving", what is more surprising is the collective progress achieved by China in the women's event. Chinese women have already won 4 full tickets to the Beijing Winter Olympics. In the four World Cups, in addition to Gu Ailing winning the championship in each station, Zhang Kexin and Li Fanghui had three matches to reach the final. In the year-end World Cup points rankings, Gu Ailing won the championship with 400 points, Zhang Kexin finished 4th with 167 points, and Li Fanghui ranked 5th with 142 points. In addition, in the Fluxus Tour of the invitational format, Gu Ailing, Li Fanghui and Zhang Kexin also entered the final.
At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Zhang Kexin reached the final for the first time and finally ranked 9th, creating China's best result in this event. Four years later, the Chinese women have a strong overall competitiveness in this project, which is expected to achieve a new breakthrough for China.
On the opponent side, Canada and the United States also got full tickets, and in the year-end World Cup standings, the United States' Hannah Faul Haber ranked second with 235 points, Canada's Rachel Kack ranked third with 220 points, and Estonia's Hildaru ranked sixth.
Men are still far from the world level
After all four World Cups this season, Chinese male athletes won three tickets to the Winter Olympics, compared with the two Pyeongchang four years ago, a slight improvement, compared with the obvious progress of women, there is still a certain gap between Chinese male players and the world's high level.
Canada and the United States continue to show strength in this event, they have received 4 full tickets to the Winter Olympics, and this season's World Cup is in the top five of the overall table, with Canada and the United States accounting for two places each. Among them, Canadian brandon McKay, born in 1997, lifted this season's crystal ball, and American star Alex Ferreira, born in 1994, won second.
In the Winter Olympic standings, Mao Bingqiang, who has already had one Winter Olympic experience, ranked 29th, and the other two players, Sun Jingbo, ranked 44th and Wang Haizhuo ranked 46th. The only regret is that He Binghan, who is ranked 47th, did not help China to win another Winter Olympic seat. However, Chinese male players who want to obtain full qualification are not completely without opportunities now, and He Binghan currently ranks first in the Winter Olympics alternate qualification list, which means that once players from other associations withdraw from the competition, He Binghan will be alternate.