US grabs freestyle skiing mixed team aerials gold at Beijing 2022

Xinhua

The United States stunned hosts China to grab the freestyle skiing mixed team aerials title at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Thursday night.

Thanks to a brilliant performance by Christopher Lillis who got 135.00 points for his back double full-full-double full, a trick boasting a difficulty degree of 5.000, the United States overtook China for the leading position.

Finally, the United States collected 338.34 points to win the gold. China finished second with 324.22 points, followed by Canada with 290.98 points.

Lillis, 23, is a two-time World Championships medalist in 2021, winning aerials silver and team bronze. In 2016, at age 17, he was the youngest man ever to win a World Cup aerials gold in Minsk.

"This has been a three-year process for us and for me getting ready for this Olympic Games and being able to throw those quintuple twisting triples. I was just happy to get the opportunity to throw one and to put it down," said Lillis after the final.

On Thursday, Lillis raised the difficulty degree just before his attempt in Final 2 after his female teammate Ashley Caldwell got only 88.86 points in her attempt with a difficulty degree of 4.293.

Chinese veteran Jia Zongyang, competing in his fourth Winter Olympics, followed Lillis to come out but did not change the difficulty degree of 4.425. However, his landing was a waterloo-like collapse and was awarded only 96.02 points.

"I made few mistakes on that trick in training. I didn't know what happened during that landing. Anyway, it was my fault to make the whole team miss the gold medal on home soil. It has stuck in my mind," Jia said with tears in their eyes.

"I hope I can show my best in the individual event," he added.

Although the last Chinese athlete Qi Guangpu beat American Justin Schoenefeld by around eight points with the same difficulty degree of 4.525, it was not enough for China to level up.

China, the United States, Switzerland, the Russian Olympic Committee, Canada and Belarus competed in the event's Olympic debut. Each team sent one female and two male athletes to the duel, and the team standings are decided by the sum of the points earned by every competitor who has only one chance of play.

After Final 1, the top four teams advance but the earned points will not be brought into Final 2 in which the medals will be decided.

China and the United States were considered title favorites.

The Chinese trio of Xu Mengtao, Jia Zongyang and Qi Guangpu finished first in Final 1 with 336.89 points, followed by the United States with 330.55, Canada in 326.94, and Switzerland in 300.62, while the ROC and Belarus were eliminated.

"It's a sport of uncertainties. We did several good jumps, but I have to congratulate Team USA because they did better tonight," said Xu Mengtao, a leading figure of China's female aerials skiers.

In July 2018, the International Olympic Committee decided to add seven medal events to Beijing 2022. They are women's monobob, big air freestyle skiing for men and women, plus mixed team events in short track speed skating, ski jumping, ski aerials and snowboard cross.