World Championships see Team China finish season on a high as athletes eye next year’s Olympics

Even with their golden girl absent and luck not always on their side, China’s freeskiers and snowboarders took plenty of positives from the final world championships before Milano-Cortina 2026.

While star skier Gu Ailing was missed at the just-concluded worlds from March 18 to 30, the two-time Olympic champion sidelined by a shoulder injury, the Chinese contingent proved it has more to offer at next year’s Winter Olympics than its celebrated all-rounder.

Gu’s absence was filled by her compatriots, who helped Team China climb the podium at the season-ending FIS showpiece in Switzerland.

The freestyle world championships served as a major rehearsal for the upcoming Olympics in Italy, as the world’s finest from across eight disciplines — including slopestyle, halfpipe, and aerials — had their tricks, runs, and, most importantly, Olympic medal prospects evaluated at Engadin, a valley in the Eastern Alps.

Among all the Chinese athletes raring to go at next year’s Games, freeskier Li Fanghui emerged as another medal hopeful, alongside Gu.

The 2020 Youth Winter Olympics medalist pulled off a pair of consistent, quality runs in the women’s halfpipe final on March 30, making a strong impression on the senior stage, despite narrowly missing out on gold, outscored by a slender 0.5 points by her British rival Zoe Atkin.

After Atkin made up for a first-run fall by scoring 93.5 points on her second, under pressure, Li dropped in last, but connected with a string of dazzling tricks, including a start-off right 900 safety, a switch left 720 Japan, and a right 1080 safety, to complete another almost flawless run, following her 90.25-point first effort, at just her second worlds.

It was not enough, though, as Li sighed at the judges’ decision to score her second run at 93 points, just shy of winning the final, where only the best run counts.

A disappointed Li was all tears after the narrow defeat, but the 22-year-old Asian Winter Games winner remained upbeat that her best is yet to come.

“It’s been a great season for me, and I really had a legitimate shot at gold in the final here,” said Li, who also added a silver in superpipe at the X Games in January and a World Cup gold in Calgary, Canada, in February to her 2025 season collection.

“I got carried away by the pressure, but I know where I have to go, though. I have to improve the quality of my grabs and my mental stability,” said Li, who finished fifth on her Olympic debut at Beijing 2022.

The battle between Atkin and Li on March 30 was a fitting end to a season in which they shared the Crystal Globe in February, after both finishing with one win, two runner-ups, and a fifth-place finish apiece to tie for the season trophy for the first time in FIS history.

Notably, four of the 10 women who started the final are Chinese, backing up the country’s collective strength in the pipe discipline, even with the reigning Olympic champion Gu watching from home.

Also capping off the final day with a podium finish was China’s veteran aerials skier and defending Olympic champion Xu Mengtao, who settled for silver, after young US skier Kaila Kuhn snatched gold.

A flawed landing on her final run cost Xu a chance of adding a second worlds gold to her glittering resume, following her first in 2013. She scored 99.16 points after completing a back full-full-full — three full rotations with spins in the air — but landing on her back.

Kuhn, who had not finished on a podium over the World Cup season, emerged strongly when it mattered most, with a 105.13-point effort on her final run, which made her the only female to crack the 100-point mark at the worlds this year.

Still, returning to the country where she claimed her first international title (2007 junior worlds) and finishing on the podium at her first worlds since returning from a long break, was encouraging enough for the 34-year-old Xu, who will compete at her fifth Winter Olympics next year.

“It was a pretty good practice ahead of the Olympics and I feel quite content with my overall performances,” said Xu, who has racked up a record 38 World Cup wins, including team events, in aerials during a storied career.

Led by Xu, two other Chinese women also made it into the six-skier super final on March 30, a testament to the depth of China’s aerialists.

Another of Beijing 2022’s heroes announcing a strong return in Switzerland was men’s reigning big air Olympic champion snowboarder Su Yiming.

Su has overcome a series of injuries and struggles with his newfound fame as a 17-year-old gold medalist at his home Games to return strongly on the world stage.

Following an inconsistent World Cup season due to fitness problems, on March 21 the 21-year-old proved his doubters wrong by stomping a first run of mesmerizing tricks to earn 85.07 points and a silver medal in the slopestyle final, repeating his runner-up finish in the discipline at Beijing 2022.

Although knocked off the top spot by Canadian rider Liam Brearley’s second run of 90.15 points, Su made sure he sent a clear message: his love of the sport is back where it is supposed to be.

“I think it all comes down to love,” Su said of his drive to keep pushing forward after winning the ultimate prize so early in his career in an interview with Olympics.com.

“After actually winning the gold medal, I felt a sort of emptiness. I didn’t have a clear goal anymore … To do something to the highest level, it has to come from a place of true passion.

“That’s why I took time to reset, and eventually, that love, and that dream, returned to me.”

sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn