Zhangjiakou, China, February 16, 2022: China’s record-breaking Olympic Winter Games continued on Wednesday when freestyle skier Qi Guangpu won the men’s aerials at Genting Snow Park A & M Stadium.
This was China’s seventh gold medal of the Games – two more than their previous best of five gold medals at Vancouver 2010.
It was also China’s 13th medal of Beijing 2022, two more than the 11 total medals they won at Vancouver 12 years ago.
Qi’s gold medal in men’s aerials was his second medal of the Games after his silver in the mixed team aerials, behind the United States.
The four-time Olympian won with 129 points, ahead of defending champion Oleksandr Abramenko of Ukraine on 116.50. Ilia Burov of the Russian Olympic Committee took bronze with a score of 114.93.
Qi’s highly difficult back double full-full-double full - a quintuple twist with three flips - scored 129 points and won him the gold medal.
“Five of the six competitors in the final have the most difficult jump,” QI said. “They are very courageous because of their determination to challenge that high-difficulty jump. It inspired me to also challenge that same jump.”
All but one skier went for a 5.000 degree of difficulty on their last jump but it was QI who executed best, distancing himself from the field by a significant margin.
By taking one step up the podium, Qi followed mixed team aerials teammate Xu Mengtao, who also won gold in her individual contest.
At close of play on Wednesday night, China was fourth in the medals table with seven gold, four silver and two bronze for 13 medals in total.
The top three are: Norway (13-7-8-28), Germany (10-6-4-20) and United States of America (8-7-4-19).
Photo: CGTN