Winter Olympics: tears flow as Su Yiming, Xu Mengtao finally make it a golden Games for China
Su Yiming upgrades the slopestyle silver he won in Beijing four years ago, while compatriot Xu Mengtao defends women’s aerials title
China’s Su Yiming celebrated his 22nd birthday by grabbing Winter Olympics gold in the men’s snowboard slopestyle on Wednesday, upgrading the silver he won in Beijing four years ago and finally breaking his country’s duck in Italy.
Little more than an hour later, Xu Mengtao made it two golds for China, retaining her title in the women’s freestyle skiing aerials. Danielle Scott of Australia took the silver and the bronze went to Xu’s compatriot Shao Qi.
Su’s opening run score of 82.41 points was ultimately too good for the rest to match, although the 22-year-old’s final time down the hill looked to be better to everyone but the judges.
He cried tears, apparently of emotional release, and still had to watch seven more riders take their last shot at his score from the bottom of the course. But they all either fell or came up short.
“So many emotions just came up to my head and then started to realise today was my birthday and then my parents are here to support me and my coaches out there, you know, everybody is here to support me,” Su said. “The emotions just came and I just couldn’t stop crying.”
Japan’s Taiga Hasegawa claimed silver with his first run of 82.13, while American Jake Canter took bronze with his third and final attempt with a 79.36 that narrowly held off an inspired last throw of the dice from Norway’s Marcus Kleveland.