Olympics-Freestyle-China great Xu retains women’s aerials title

By Alvise Armellini

LIVIGNO, Italy, Feb 18 (Reuters) – China’s Xu Mengtao retained her title in the women’s freestyle skiing aerials at the Winter Olympics on Wednesday, adding another trophy to a stellar career. 

Danielle Scott of Australia took the silver, while the bronze went to Xu’s compatriot Shao Qi. 

Xu, 35, is a five-times Olympian with 35 World Cup victories, a record for aerials, and current World Cup rankings leader. The International Ski and Snowboard Federation has described her as the greatest aerials skier of all time.

As well as gold at Beijing 2022, she won silver in mixed team aerials at those Games and aerials silver at Sochi 2014.

In Wednesday’s final at the alpine resort of Livigno, Xu towered over rivals, with a 112.90 score with her last jump, compared to 102.17 for Scott and 101.90 for Shao.

Xu was in tears as she held her arms up in celebration, holding the Chinese flag.

Scott, a four-times Olympian who is also 35, had said she was gunning for gold but the Austrsalian was no match for her Chinese rival. Their top-two finish was remarkable in a sport usually dominated by younger athletes.

Shao, 24, was at her second Olympics, winning her first medal.

Aerials is a gravity-defying discipline in which athletes jump off a near vertical ramp, launching themselves up to 20 meters in the air and performing complex aerobatics before landing on a steep slope.

During the exercise, they reach speeds of up to more than 60 kilometres per hour. Performances are judged on height, distance, style, degree of difficulty and landing, with a maximum score of 150.

The discipline has been part of the Games since Lillehammer 1994.

(Reporting by Alvise Armellini, Editing by Ken Ferris)