Beijing, China, February 15, 2022: China’s teenage snowboard sensation Su Yiming is making a big name for himself at the Winter Olympics – a “big air” name!
Not only did he collect a second medal of Beijing 2022 at Big Air Shougang on Tuesday afternoon – it was gold in the men’s snowboard big air competition.
The 17-year-old daredevil had won silver in the men’s snowboard slopestyle on February 7 but this time he went one better and took gold as China continued their march up the medal rankings.
Su recorded a combined score of 182.50 points for his two best efforts from three runs – 93.00 on his second run and 89.50 on his first run.
Norway’s Mons Roisland took the silver medal with 171.75 (89.25 first run/82.50 third run) and Canada’s Max Parrot was third with 170.25 (94.00 second run/76.25 third run).
It was the first-ever snowboard gold medal for China, and Su could not hide his pride. “This feels insane. It's something I've never experienced before,” he said.
"I got silver in slopestyle and I was so happy to land a run and be on the podium with Max and Mark - my idols,” he added, referring to the Canadian pair of Max Parrot, who won slopestyle gold, and Mark McMorris, who took bronze behind Su on that occasion.
"But today - big air…I was just trying to do my best and to enjoy the competition, but I can't believe I got this gold."
Su said he had been training every day for the past four years and admitted: "Every night I was dreaming about this moment."
When asked why he chose snowboard as a sport he replied: "I did that because I knew there was a chance of competing in my home country. I wanted to try my best for this.
"The most important thing, though, is all about love. Snowboarding is not just about competition.
"You see here every rider from a different country, we're all doing the same thing - we love snowboarding. This is just out of our love."
Photos: CGTN
