At this morning's Genting Ski Park, Gu Ailing was not able to win his second gold medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics as he wished, but a silver medal from a weak disadvantage was also not easy to come by.
However, Gu Ailing's next competition to break through and surpass is her last competition in this Winter Olympics - U-shaped venue skills.
Like Sildarru in Estonia, Gu Ailing is one of only two athletes on the Freestyle SkiIng Track at the Beijing Winter Olympics who has signed up for three events. The last U-shaped venue skill, Sildaroo is also Gu Ailing's main competitor for the gold medal.
For Gu Ailing, participating in three competitions is certainly a great feat, but it also brings her difficulties in preparing for each competition. In particular, after the slope obstacle course competition was postponed for a day due to heavy snowfall, Gu Ailing had half the training time less than most of the players who played in U-shaped field skills.
It is precisely because of this that when Gu Ailing jumped out of a result that was enough to enter the final in yesterday's slope obstacle course qualifying, he had no time to care about the performance of the other players behind him, and did not wait for the news of the final confirmation of the promotion to come out, and went to the U-shaped field to train in a race against time.
However, compared with his first two projects, Gu Ailing's real main project is also a U-shaped venue. From the 2020 Youth Winter Olympics to the 2021 World Championships, Gu Ailing is a champion.
This season, in the 37 days from December 5 last year, Gu Ailing has maintained a complete victory in the World Cup U-shaped venue skills stage. She won five championships and held up the crystal ball that symbolized the championship of the season.
And Gu Ailing's performance in each championship is very high, especially at the Mammoth Mountain Station in the United States, where she won the championship with a super high score of 97.50 points. The International Skating Federation even issued a special article praising, "This is the most perfect performance in the history of the women's U-shaped track skills competition so far." ”
Although the difficulty of Gu Ailing's set of movements is not low, there are three turns of more than 900 degrees, including a 1080 degree, but it is not the highest among all female players. Her biggest advantage in her U-shaped track skills is that the coherence of the whole set of skating moves is very outstanding, and each competition is a one-shot, and the overall viewing is very strong.
One that poses a threat to Gu Ailing is the project's defending champion, Pyeongchang Winter Olympic gold medalist and Canadian veteran Casey Sharp. She is known as the "difficulty king" in the U-shaped field, and in addition to a 1080 and a 900, she can also do a super difficult 1260. If Sharp can stably complete her entire set of difficult slides, she is expected to shake Gu Ai's dominant position.
Sildaru, who also competes in three competitions, is also quite competitive, and she can also do three turns above 900 degrees, and the previous highest score has often exceeded 90 points.
Of course, as long as Gu Ailing, who is strong enough in her heart, can play her full level normally, she is still very hopeful to win the second gold medal of her first Winter Olympics.
In fact, if it can be done, it is a record of making history. In the previous Winter Olympic Games, no female athlete has been able to win two gold medals in a single session in the freestyle ski event.
The qualifying round for the women's U-shaped track skills in freestyle skiing will be held on the morning of February 17, with the finals taking place on the morning of February 18.