Consistent Liu takes another huge leap toward Olympic debut

With two straight podium finishes bolstering her Olympic ambition, China's rising freeski star Liu Mengting has landed herself among the hot favorites for Games success in the big air discipline.

Riding on the momentum from her third-place finish at the season-opening World Cup event in Chongli, Hebei province, on Nov 29, Liu, a freestyle skier specializing in the high-flying event, boosted her chances of securing a ticket to her debut Olympics at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Games by winning the silver medal at the Cup series' Beijing leg on Saturday.

Hurtling down the Shougang Big Air slope, Liu landed her first two runs in the final with poise and quality — stomping a left dub 1440 cindy to score a field high 90.50 points on her first jump, and a right dub 1080 safety to score 81.75 points on her second.

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

Canada's Naomi Urness rounded out the podium in 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 counting toward the final standings.

Liu's silver finish marked Chinese athletes' best-ever result at Shougang Big Air 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 2022 Beijing Winter Games.

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

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

"There is still a long way to go to get to Milan. I've prepared for the Olympics for a long time. I believe I still have room for improvement, and I will take one step at a time. Hopefully, I can continue skiing with the consistency that I've shown these past two weeks."

In the men's final, Norway's Ulrik Samnoy 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).

For reigning big air world champion Harrington, a high level of consistency, underlined by achieving his sixth straight World Cup podium finish in Beijing, has bolstered his confidence of winning a medal on what would be his Olympic debut in Milano-Cortina.

"To continue the streak means everything. It's definitely giving me a lot of confidence going into the next event," said the 20-year-old freestyler.

"Of course the Olympics are the pinnacle, something I've been dreaming of for a very long time. It's still a long journey, and I think I can push myself a little bit more and show more of what I've got there."

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 has punched their tickets to Italy, when the Olympic Qualification Quota, based on their World Cup points rankings to that point, is published on Jan 19.

Following the Milano-Cortina Games, the World Cup tour resumes on March 17 in Tignes, France, for the Big Air World Cup season finale and the Big Air Crystal Globe awards ceremony.