Early tomorrow morning, the Shougang Ski Jump will undoubtedly be the focus of attention, because there is Gu Ailing, the top athlete of the Chinese delegation at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
18-year-old Gu Ailing will make her Winter Olympic debut in the qualifying round for the women's freestyle ski jump. This is also one of the three freestyle skiing events that Gu Ailing participated in at the Winter Olympics.
The reason why Gu Ailing can have such a high degree of attention, the super high level of competition is the most important factor. The current stanford graduate has the ability to strike gold medals in all three events of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
But the big jump is not Gu Ailing's best performance project, and it can also be said to be the most difficult gold medal. At last year's World Championships, Gu Ailing also competed in these three events, winning two gold medals and a bronze medal, and the bronze medal project was the big jump.
However, this season, Gu Ailing not only unlocked the two-week flip 1440-degree action, becoming the first female athlete in the world to make this action, but also successfully won the championship with this action at the World Cup in the United States Steamboat station at the end of last year, and scored a high score of 96 points.
"1440" will be Gu Ailing's trump card for the Freestyle Ski Jump at the Winter Olympics.
Today, Gu Ailing also posted a video of her easily completing "1440" in pre-match training on her social media, and she was in a very good state.
Gu Ailing's biggest opponent, and possibly the most insurmountable, in the big jump event is The Swiss's Mathilde Grimo. She was also runner-up in women's steeplechase at the last Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, and set a record for the youngest medalist in the history of the Winter Olympics in freestyle skiing at age 18 and 9 days.
In the big jumping event, Grimor is known as the "jumping king" and is currently ranked first in the world, while Gu Ailing is only ranked 5th in the world.
Like Gu Ailing, Grimor has her own unique trick - 1440 degrees in the flip forward for two weeks, and she is the only female athlete who can do this super difficult move.
Grimor's "1440" is more difficult than Gu Ailing's "1440", so as long as it can be successfully completed in Beijing, she will win the gold medal in the freestyle ski women's big jump without suspense.
In addition, Gu Ailing's opponents include France's Tess Ludd, who has jumped high scores many times this season, the world's No. 3 Talented Estonian girl Kelly Sildaru, as well as the world-ranked No. 6 Norwegian Johanne Keely and the World Championship champion Russia's Tatarina.