Gu Ailing, ranked first in the preliminaries of the Freestyle Skiing World Cup Chongli Station, said with a smile, “I’m back home” – Sports – China Engineering Network

Original title: Ranked first in the preliminaries of the Freestyle Skiing World Cup Chongli Station (Quote)

Gu Ailing advanced to the finals despite injury and said with a smile, “I’m back home” (theme)

Yesterday morning, the FIS Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding Halfpipe World Cup Chongli Station started the women’s free skate preliminaries. Chinese Winter Olympics champion Gu Ailing scored the highest score of 94.75 points in the two rounds of preliminaries, and successfully advanced to the finals on the 9th as the first place in the preliminaries. Gu Ailing also used her perfect performance to dispel previous concerns about her playing with injuries.

The FIS Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding Halfpipe World Cup was held at Chongli Station in the halfpipe at Yunding Ski Resort. The weather for the preliminaries was fine, providing a good competition environment for the players. Gu Ailing became the most watched player in the preliminaries, not only because she is the only Winter Olympics champion among all participants, but also because she just broke her shoulder during training in Austria a week ago. In order to catch up with the World Cup in Chongli, Gu Ailing insisted on playing with injuries.

After arriving in Chongli, Hebei, Gu Ailing also felt the impact of the injury during training two days before the game. “I am playing with an injury this time, and it is a serious injury.” Gu Ailing said frankly, “After I was injured in training in Austria, two doctors said that I needed immediate surgery after the first diagnosis. The injury is also very painful now.”

Although the outside world was a little worried about Gu Ailing’s reported injury, Gu Ailing dispelled the doubts of the outside world with his relaxed performance on the first match day. In the first round of skating, Gu Ailing performed easily. Facing the unknown snow conditions, Gu Ailing did not choose difficult movements in the first skating of the season. After the 1080 movement started, she used smooth connecting movements to complete the game. Although it was not difficult, she conquered the judges in terms of height in the air and stability on landing. She scored 85.50 points in the first round and ranked second. American player Farheb is temporarily ranked first.

Entering the second round of skating, Gu Ailing, who was already confident about herself and the venue, became more relaxed. She started with back-to-back 720 moves. The difficulty of the moves opened up the “ceiling”, and her landing was also clean and stable. Gu Ailing’s move was recognized by the referee, and he scored a high score of 94.75, overtaking Falhebo to take the first place in the qualifying round. After completing the action, Gu Ailing punched hard and released, and after learning the score, she also interacted with the fans in the stands. Falhebo also performed well in the second round, finishing second behind Gu Ailing with a score of 90.75 to advance.

After the preliminaries, when Gu Ailing was asked about his biggest feelings about the game, he smiled and said “go home” twice. She said that she has changed a lot in the past two years after the Winter Olympics. She became a college student. At the age of 20, she felt that she had grown up, had a different understanding of life, and had more confidence in herself.

In this Chongli World Cup, many Chinese players will compete. Zhang Kexin, born in 2002, finished seventh in the Beijing Olympics. In the first slide of this preliminaries, Zhang Kexin performed a 900-step grabbing motion. The backward sliding grabbing motion landed cleanly and consistently with a high completion rate. He scored 82 points and ranked fourth. Although Li Fanghui made a mistake in the difficult challenge in the first round, she still scored 85.50 points with her high-level performance in the second round and advanced to third place in the preliminaries. In the free skating final on the 9th, Gu Ailing will challenge for the World Cup podium with two Chinese teammates. (This article/Photo courtesy of reporter Chu Peng/Xinhua News Agency coordinator/Wang Yong)

Related

Gu Ailing once again ranks third in the world’s highest-earning female athletes list

Yesterday, according to the 2023 global female athlete income list released by the American sports and financial media “Sportico”, Chinese freestyle skier Gu Ailing ranked third with US$20 million. This is the second consecutive year that Gu Ailing has been included in this list. There are 7 players in this list from tennis, and Gu Ailing is the only skier in the top ten.

American tennis player Gauff, who won the US Open Grand Slam trophy this year, ranks first on the list with a total income of US$22.7 million. Polish women’s tennis world No. 1 Swiatek ranked second with $21.9 million. Although Gu Ailing’s tournament prize money is only US$27,000, her sponsorship income is as high as US$20 million, ranking third. In addition, former US Open champions Raducanu and Naomi Osaka, Australian Open champion Sabalenka, Wimbledon champion Rybakina, and American tennis player Pegula are also among the top ten, demonstrating the strong ability of tennis to attract money. Gu Ailing’s ability to rank third on the women’s income list also shows that her excellent winter sports results have been recognized and brought dazzling commercial value.

Last year, “Forbes” announced a list of the ten highest-paid female athletes in the world in 2022. Gu Ailing ranked third with $20.1 million, Naomi Osaka ranked first with $51.1 million, and second was Serena William. James $41.3 million.