Gu Ailing has many fierce enemies on the big jump platform, who can "wear" the "crystal shoes" in a soaring sky?

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics big jumping event will be carried out on the Shougang Ski Jump in Beijing, which has two nicknames: "Snow Flying Sky" and "Crystal Shoes", Chinese freestyle ski jumping female athlete Gu Ailing is competitive in this project, but her opponents should not be underestimated, who can "wear" "crystal shoes" in the sky? It also needs to be verified on the field.

Mathilde Grimaud is a Swiss athlete born in 2000. Her father was an alpine skier, so she was able to ski at the age of 2 and also practiced alpine skiing, but when she grew up, she became interested in freestyle skiing and learned big jumping and slope obstacle course skills in a very short time. At the age of 16, she won the silver medal in the first world cup of the big jump, just three days after her 17th birthday, she won the World Cup of the big jump, the gold medal of the big jump at the World Winter Extreme Games in the same year, and the overall number of points in the 2016-2017 big jump World Cup was third. Unfortunately, at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in 2018, the freestyle ski jump had not yet become a Winter Olympic event, so Grimor only participated in the slope obstacle course, and insisted on playing and winning the silver medal in the case of a concussion caused by an injury in pre-competition training.

Gu Ailing (middle)

In the Beijing cycle, Grimau shined in the big jumping event, participating in 5 World Cups and winning 4 gold, and the World Winter Extreme Games 2 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze. Even more notable is that on September 14, 2020, she became the first female freestyle ski jumper to complete a 1440-degree flip forward flip. But this season, Gu Ailing also completed the breakthrough of 1440 moves, becoming the first woman to ski jump in a front-skating backflip two-turn 1440-degree action, and the Winter Olympics may be able to see the two take out 1440 action duels. "I can realise that I may not be the only one to complete the 1440 move at the Beijing Winter Olympics, there is good healthy competition in the freestyle ski women's big jump, this atmosphere makes us want to be better than others, but also makes us feel really happy." I get excited when I see those newer and more creative moves that make me aspire to be a part of the sport's development. "My goal at the Beijing Winter Olympics is to win another medal, any color." Although in the interview, Gremer made a joke about her goals, in fact, she has her own plan and will give it a go, "When you can stand on the top stage of the sport, why hide instead of showing your 'card' to the world?" ”

Tess Ludder is a French athlete born in 2001. She has loved skiing since she was a child, learning to ski almost from the day she can walk, becoming a member of the local freestyle ski club at the age of 9, and winning the World Cup of Slope Steeplechase in France at the age of 15, the youngest freestyle skiing World Cup. "When I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to be a professional skier." Tess said. At the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, she returned home, and her 15th place result gave her a taste of failure. In the Beijing cycle, Tess won 1 gold and 2 silver in the World Cup on the big jumping platform, 3 gold in the World Winter Extreme Games, and gold medals at the 2019 World Championships. In the face of up-and-coming Gu Ailing, Tess said that she was working on some more technical techniques, but it was still kept secret, hoping that she would show her results at the Beijing Winter Olympics. "In order to return home satisfied when I return from Beijing, I have to be able to arrange everything I am doing. Now I feel good, I know I have the ability to win medals, but there are still a lot of things between me and the medals, and I try to focus on what I can master: my technique and my skiing. Then what should happen happens. ”

Kelly Hildaru is an Estonian athlete born in 2002. The world is speculating whether she will participate in the three projects like Gu Ailing, and now the answer is revealed, yes, the pair of friends will collide strongly in the three projects. Estonia is not a snow powerhouse, and the only freestyle skier is Hildaru participating in the Beijing Winter Olympics. There was a small jumping platform and two or three sliders near her house, where Hildaru had been practicing since he was a child. At the age of 4, little Hildaru wanted to imitate his father and his friends while skiing to do some jumping and sliding movements, and this passion has continued to this day, and at the age of 13, Hildaru won the gold medal in slope sculpting at the 2016 World Winter Extreme Games, becoming the youngest world winter extreme games gold medalist to date, and the first world winter extreme games medalist in Estonia. But her ability to jump the stage is relatively weak, and the best world cup result is only the bronze medal in Austria in January 2021.

In addition, there are many athletes who aspire to stand on the podium of the Shougang Ski Jump, such as Sarah Hovelin, the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics steeplechase champion, whose competitiveness at the age of 31 remains in the first group, ranking third in the big jump and steeplechase Winter Olympics standings, higher than Gu Ailing.