Golden Gu spearheads China's charge

Gu Ailing's historic double World Cup win topped a sensational weekend of winter sports success for China which bodes extremely well for the host's chances at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Even with the coronavirus epidemic affecting preparations for 2022, Chinese athletes are showing no signs of letting up in their quests for Olympic glory, highlighted by a series of inspirational wins in the International Ski Federation's World Cup circuit over the weekend.

China's Gu, a US-born freestyle prodigy, made history by becoming the first ever back-to-back freeski World Cup winner in two different events at the same venue after claiming the slopestyle title in Calgary, Canada, on Saturday.

The day before, Gu had stormed to her first Cup gold in the halfpipe competition.

Gu again thrilled the crowds on Saturday in the slopestyle with another impressive display of technical riding, landing a string of difficult tricks, including a massive right 900 twist with a tail grab in her second run that earned her 89.18 points to dominate the 18-strong field.

"Honestly, my mind is blown," Gu told the FIS website after Saturday's triumph.

"Coming in I didn't have any expectations. I try not to take anything for granted. Honestly, I could not have expected two wins from these events," added Gu, who sealed halfpipe gold with a 94-point third run.

"I really just came in trying to do my best and ski the way I knew I could. Skiing my best is really the best part of this, and being rewarded for it just makes it even better."

Born to a Chinese mother and an American father in San Francisco, Gu, better known as Eileen in the States, completed a naturalization process last June to represent China in international competition.

Now she has her sights set on doing her mother's home country proud at the 2022 Beijing Games.

A versatile skier who was won multiple national junior titles in the US, Gu shot to prominence last month after winning two golds and a silver (in halfpipe, Big Air and slopestyle) at her debut Winter Youth Olympics in Lausanne, Switzerland.

With Gu now on board in freeski, China's snow sports contingent, which also features world-class aerial skiers and halfpipe snowboarders, is determined to challenge Western dominance on the snow in 2022.

Joining the quest are the snowboarding duo of Cai Xuetong and Liu Jiayu, who also finished off their World Cup season on a high note in Calgary.

Right after Gu's win, Cai claimed the women's halfpipe gold with a 87.25-point first run to cap her season atop the Cup standings and bring home the coveted crystal globe as the circuit's overall winner for a record sixth time.

Liu finished third in the tour finale to finish second behind Cai in the rankings.

The 26-year-old Cai now has a record 12 career Cup victories to go with her two world championship wins (2015 and 2017). Adding an Olympic medal to her collection is now what matters most to her.

"As long as I keep improving, I have confidence that I can deliver my best performance in 2022 at home," Cai said in December after finishing runner-up to Liu at the World Cup's Chongli meet.

As China's only snowboarding Olympic medalist, Liu, who won halfpipe silver behind US star Chloe Kim at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games in South Korea, proved she remains a force to be reckoned with this season following a year-long break from the sport. Liu produced podium finishes at all five legs of the World Cup this season.

Adding to the celebrations on the snow, Chinese skaters also did the country proud by beating arch-rival South Korea to win the 2,000m mixed relay at the International Skating Union's short-track speed skating World Cup meet in the Dutch city of Dordrecht on Saturday.

Led by Wu Dajing, the men's 500m winner at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, and five-time women's 500m world champion Fan Kexin, China surged into the lead midway through the race before fending off the strong Korean challenge for gold in the high-profile team event at the six-leg Cup circuit's final meet.

The gold-medal performances were all the more welcome considering they were achieved on a weekend when the first official test event for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was supposed to take place. The outbreak of the coronavirus had forced the cancelation of that competition, an alpine skiing World Cup meet in northwest Beijing's Yanqing district.