Freeskier Liu eyes Olympic podium after two home World Cup medal finishes

The 21-year-old finished runner-up with a total of 172.25 points behind winner Anni Karava of Finland, who overtook Liu with two solid runs from her second and third attempts, scoring a winning total of 175.50 points.

Canada's Naomi Urness rounded up the podium at third with 171.50 points from her second and third runs. Eight women had made it to the final round, where each of them took three runs with their two best scores counted for the final standing.

Liu's silver finish marked Chinese athletes' best-ever result at Shougang Big Air, a Beijing 2022 venue, on the FIS freeski World Cup series. Only two-time Olympic champion Eileen Gu had achieved a better result at the same venue by winning the big air gold at the Beijing Winter Games.

"To be able to achieve two podium finishes on the World Cup stage in a row and doing it both on home snow was really a big honor for me," said Liu, whose previous best at Shougang was last year's sixth-place finish in the west Beijing industrial park.

"I am very proud of my myself for achieving such consistent results, which will definitely encourage myself to push for better outcomes as a great confidence booster," said Liu, who won her first and only World Cup big air title in Klagenfurt, Austria, in January.

"There remains a long way to Milan from now on. I've prepared for the Olympics for a long time. I believe I still have room for improvements and I will take one step at a time to elevate myself for the Olympic goal. Hopefully, I can continue skiing with the consistency that I've shown these two weeks."

In the men's final, Norway's Ulrik Samnoey won gold with a total of 184.00 points, followed by runner-up Luca Harrington of New Zealand (182.50 points) and Austria's bronze medalist Matej Svancer (180.00 points).

The FIS freeski big air World Cup series next travels to Steamboat, Colorado for its penultimate stop of the four-leg season, which will serve as the third and final Olympic qualification event for Milano-Cortina 2026.

After the Steamboat stop, which runs from Dec 11-13, skiers will take a monthlong break, before learning who will ski on their way to the Olympics, when the Olympic Qualification Quota, based on the ranking of their World Cup points, is published on Jan 19.

sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn