Freestyle skiing aerial skills mixed group Chinese team picked silver The snow on the sky left a trace of regret

On the 10th, the beijing winter olympics new event freestyle skiing aerial skills mixed team final was held in Zhangjiakou division, and the three veterans of the Chinese team Xu Mengtao, Jia Zongyang and Qi Guangpu won a silver medal.

The conquest of the "Elders of the Four Dynasties"

The Freestyle Ski Aerial Skills Mixed Team event requires each team to consist of three players, including at least one player of different genders. The three players sent by the Chinese team this time are all the "elders of the four dynasties" of the Winter Olympics: Xu Mengtao, the runner-up in women's aerial skills at the Sochi Winter Olympics, Jia Zongyang, the runner-up in men's aerial skills at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, and Qi Guangpu, who was once the "world's first person in difficulty".

In the first round of the final, six teams from China, the Russian Olympic Committee, Belarus, Canada, the United States and Switzerland participated. Each player jumps once per round of aerial skills competitions, and the performance scores of the three parts of jumping, aerial maneuvers and landing are multiplied by the difficulty coefficient as the final score, so athletes need to better balance the difficulty and completion of the action to achieve higher scores.

In the first round of the women's competition, Xu Mengtao and american Ashley Caldwell had the highest action difficulty coefficient, the same 4.293, Xu Mengtao was slightly inferior on the landing; Jia Zongyang chose the action with a difficulty coefficient of 4.425 and completed it well; Qi Guangpu chose a higher difficulty coefficient of 4.525 and performed stably. In the first round, China ranked first to the second round of the final with a total score of 336.89 points, followed by the equally strong American team, and Canada and Switzerland advanced in third and fourth place respectively.

In the second round of the final, Xu Mengtao and Caldwell's action difficulty coefficient remained unchanged. Competing again, this time Xu Mengtao scored a high score of 106.03 with a more outstanding performance, 88.86 points ahead of his opponents. However, The American male player Christopher Lilis raised the difficulty to 5.000 and jumped successfully, scoring the highest score of the game at 135.00; Jia Zongyang kept the difficulty coefficient unchanged, but there was a big mistake on the landing, and only scored 96.02 points. Qi Guangpu's final key jump still chose the action with a difficulty factor of 4.525, and he completed it well, scoring 122.17 points. But that wasn't enough to reverse team America.

Outstanding overall strength

It is reported that about half a year after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the Executive Committee of the International Olympic Committee held a meeting and adopted a plan for the project setting of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Finally, on the basis of not expanding the scale of participation, the Beijing Winter Olympics added 7 small events such as speed skating mixed relay and freestyle skiing aerial skill mixed team, and the number of gold medals will be increased to 109 in history.

In the short track speed skating 2000 meters mixed relay competition, the Chinese team won the championship, and the freestyle skiing aerial skill mixed team was even more determined for the Chinese team. In December 2017, at the two Freestyle Skiing Aerial Skills World Cups in Chongli, the Chinese team won two mixed team gold medals. At that time, the Chinese team sent a team of first and second teams to participate, one team was partnered by Jia Zongyang, Qi Guangpu and Xu Mengtao, and the second team was composed of Yan Ting, Wang Xindi and Wu Shudi.

Although there are high expectations for this project, the national team is still relatively low-key. Coach Ji Dong previously said in an interview, "The team competition is also proposed by China, of course, after the increase, all countries attach great importance to it." And considering the objective factors of this project, the contingency is too large, so no one dares to say that it is very certain. ”

Before the Winter Olympics, in december 2021, in the two consecutive World Cup mixed team matches held in Lucca, Finland, the Chinese team using different squads won the championship: in the first game, Xu Mengtao, Jia Zongyang and Qi Guangpu played, and the three veterans played steadily, successfully winning the championship with a total score of 343.24 points. In the second game, the Chinese team changed the lineup, Xu Mengtao, Qi Guangpu and young player Sun Jiaxu together, with a total score of 354.87 points, once again reached the top, showing a strong overall strength.

The regrets of the veterans

The mixed team tests the overall strength of the team, often 2 men and 1 woman, and the biggest threat to the Chinese team is the Russian Olympic team with Maxim and Pavel and the Swiss team with an average age of 22 years old, the gold medalist of the 2019 World Championships mixed team.

Among the athletes in the mixed team competition, the most concerned is naturally Xu Mengtao, a 32-year-old veteran who participated in the Winter Olympics for the fourth time.

After the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Xu Mengtao underwent nail removal for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction in her left knee and meniscus repair surgery on both knees, which was her fourth major surgery in 10 years.

After a season of absence from the international arena, Xu Mengtao showed a good state in the 2021-2022 FIS Freestyle Skiing Aerial Skills World Cup, reaching the podium in 4 of the 6 individual races, winning two championships, and 27 World Cup individual gold medals also made her the history of this project.

Xu Mengtao only lacks a Winter Olympic gold medal, and she is eager to realize her dream at the doorstep: "I want to work hard from accumulation, ability, and competitive performance to show the best Xu Mengtao." ”

"This is my fourth Winter Olympics, and I hope to show the best and put my most perfect moves in the Beijing Winter Olympics!"

Like Xu Mengtao, Jia Zongyang and Qi Guangpu of the men's team are also the elders of the Four Dynasties. At the doorstep of the game, Jia Zongyang said - "The biggest goal is to help the whole team win the team gold medal, look forward to blooming, and finally realize the dream at the Beijing Winter Olympics!" ”

And Qi Guangpu, who celebrated his 31st birthday 100 days ago, may have made a wish - the winter Olympic champion!

Unfortunately, Jia Zongyang made a mistake in the final round, and the Chinese team regretted winning the silver medal. Comprehensive Xinhua News Agency, Beijing Daily