Glide, raise your arms, take off, flip in the air, land steadily... The Chinese team Xu Mengtao, Jia Zongyang and Qi Guangpu performed remarkablely and played steadily, but the American team played more flawlessly. On the evening of February 10, in the freestyle skiing aerial skills mixed team final, the Chinese team won a silver medal with a total score of 324.22.
Aerial skills
Another "king" of China's Winter Olympics
If short track speed skating is the "king's master" of China's Winter Olympics, then the aerial skills project is the "strongest king" of China's snow sports, in the Winter Olympic medal map, the aerial skills project has won a total of 1 gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze, of which Han Xiaopeng won the gold medal in men's freestyle skiing aerial skills at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.
At the Beijing Winter Olympics, aerial skills remain a traditional competitive sport in China. The Chinese team also has a high competitiveness in the new event of this Winter Olympic Games, the mixed team, especially in the two World Cup mixed team matches held in December 2021, the Chinese team has won the championship, coupled with occupying the "favorable time and place", whether it can return to glory tonight is looking forward to.
Platooning
Three "Olympic elders" came into battle
According to the rules, each team can send three people to compete, each round of jump, each player's highest score is added to the team's total score, according to which the ranking is determined, and the competition is divided into two rounds. The team lineup can not exceed two athletes of the same gender, because the general action difficulty coefficient of male players is higher than that of female players, so it is generally sent to the lineup of two men and one woman to participate.
But women players will have a more stable performance, two women and one male player is also an option, and any mistake in the team competition may make the entire team lose the previous achievements and lose the qualification for medals. So how to balance risk and score and make the most of the overall capabilities is very important.
Before the match, the Chinese team roster was released, led by Xu Mengtao (female), Jia Zongyang (male) and Qi Guangpu (male), with substitutes Kong Fanyu and Wang Xindi to launch an attack on the gold medal. The main players are also the "old acquaintances" of the Winter Olympics, among which Xu Mengtao won the silver medal in the women's event at the Sochi Winter Olympics; Jia Zongyang won the third and second places in the men's event at the Sochi Winter Olympics and the Pingchang Winter Olympics; Qi Guangpu, as the "world's first person in difficulty", the best result was the fourth place in the Sochi Winter Olympics.
The pursuit of perfection
Lost to the United States and won the silver medal
Xu Mengtao, as the most outstanding female athlete this season, is the first choice for the freestyle ski aerial skills mixed team participants. In the first round, Xu Mengtao, as the women's first jump, played an important role in the team, scoring 94.01 points. Jia Zongyang is not only a veteran of the Winter Olympics, but also an important support for the mixed team, and he later scored 124.78 points. Qi Guangpu is the men's team's "DingHai Shen Needle", and he scored 118.10 points in his last appearance. The Chinese team, which played steadily, scored 336.89 in the first round, ranking first to advance to the second round of the final.
A total of four teams entered the second round of competition, in addition to the Chinese team, there are also the United States team, Canada team and Swiss team. In the competition, Xu Mengtao once again completed the highest difficult action among the women's players, scoring 106.03 points. Jia Zongyang made a small mistake in the pursuit of perfection, scoring only 96.02 points. After two jumps, the Chinese team slid to the second place with a total score of 202.05, and the United States team rose to the first place with outstanding performances. Qi Guangpu, who came in the third appearance, withstood the pressure and used the difficulty coefficient of 4.525 to score 112.17 points, and finally the Chinese team won the second place with a total score of 324.22, the American team won the championship with 338.34 points, and the Canadian team won the bronze medal.
Ten years to sharpen a sword
Freestyle skiing aerial skills are known as the "diving" sport in ice and snow sports, athletes need to jump from the snow platform, rotate and churn at a height of ten meters, show aerial skills, gorgeous and exciting in the eyes of the viewer, for athletes, the training behind is quite arduous.
In order to train good balance and air control and new movements, they have to carry out a series of complex special training, including flips, trampolines, skiing, fancy diving, swimming, these are completely different sports, they must be proficient in the snow platform. In the non-snow season, aerial skill athletes have to train fancy diving simulation training in the pool, and then slowly turn to the snow when the movements are mature, in addition to exercising the trampoline of aerial rotation is the most important training subject. Guo Xinxin, the third runner-up of the Vancouver Winter Olympics who worked as a front-line teacher at the Shenyang Institute of Physical Education after retiring, said: "Every athlete in aerial skills is a sword sharpened for ten years, and it is indeed too beautiful to take off from the snow platform, but this is the boring training of athletes year after year, and none of them are not scarred." ”
China's freestyle skiing project has been pursuing the Winter Olympics for 30 years, creating a number of "firsts" in China's snow sports, and a number of high-level players such as Han Xiaopeng, Guo Dandan, Xu Yuanyuan, Li Nina, Guo Xinxin, Liu Zhongqing, Zhang Xin and so on have emerged. Although Xu Mengtao, Jia Zongyang and Qi Guangpu have passed the age of establishment, they are still active on the field, because they still have the most important dreams in their hearts to be realized, and they will continue to take the leap in the air in the next personal aerial skills project.
Text/Hubei Daily reporter Zhang Shiqiu
Photo: Xinhua News Agency