China's Cai, Liu, Qiu enter women's snowboard halfpipe final at Beijing 2022
"I was pretty happy with it because in my first run I fell and I felt a lot of pressure in my second one," said Liu. "In the beginning I was focusing on just making it into the finals and that's my first step. And then I did it with my second run and I was so proud of myself."
Qiu was lucky enough to lock the last spot in qualification with 66.25 points, edging out American Maddie Mastro by 0.5 points. Defending champion Chloe Kim topped in the qualifiers with 87.75 points in her first run.
"Kim is truly a talented athlete and I have been challenging her all the time. I have always appreciated her competitiveness and her promotion of snowboarding. She has been leveling up the difficulty of tricks, which encourages us to make breakthroughs," said Cai.
On the men's side, Japanese snowboarders dominated the qualification with four players admitted to the final, while China's Gu Ao, Fan Xiaobing, Wang Ziyang and Gao Hongbo ended their Olympic journey.
"I have been practicing snowboarding for 10 years. I am very excited to compete in my motherland. Compared with world top athletes, my tricks lack difficulty and altitude. I will continue to improve myself," said Fan.
