High hopes as big air hits Beijing

All eyes will be on Su Yiming, for sure, yet the big air World Cup's Beijing return has so much more to offer when the world's finest acrobatic skiers and snowboarders conjure their tricks in the Chinese capital.

Towering over the west Beijing skyline, the monster slope at Shougang Industrial Park is in tip-top condition and the excitement is riding just as high, as the latest leg of the 2025-26 big air World Cup series at the former Olympic venue sets freeskiers and snowboarders up with a perfect launchpad for their Milano-Cortina 2026 campaign — while serving fans a feast of hair-raising stunts at the world's only permanent big air venue.

China's reigning Olympic champion Su remains the red-hot favorite in the men's snowboard discipline, following his golden run at the season opener in Chongli, Hebei province, last week, yet the ambitious chasing pack, led by high-flying riders from Japan and Europe, is expected to mix things up, with not just the title, but Olympic qualifying points, up for grabs.

Returning to his career's milestone venue for the third time since Beijing 2022, Su said he always feels an extra push to stomp his best tricks whenever he takes off from the Shougang ramp.

"Every time I come back here, it always feels sacredly special, because this is where I've achieved one of my biggest career goals by winning my first Olympic gold medal," Su, who's won twice in Beijing — at the 2022 Games and the 2023 Cup event — said before his training run in Shougang on Tuesday.

"I do want to compete for the best outcome every time here, but I'd like to focus on my training one day at a time," said the 21-year-old, who's come back healthy from an injury-plagued 2024-25 season.

"To train at the world's best big air slope feels like a bonus, because you know what to expect from the optimal and consistent conditions in every jump, so you feel safe to try some new tricks."

Su will be joined again by his younger compatriot, Ge Chunyu, and teammate Yang Wenlong, who both competed last week in Chongli, to enjoy the home support and aim for another collective podium finish. Ge, a 19-yearold prodigy, claimed his career first World Cup medal, a silver, in Chongli, joining Su with his gold, to make history as the first two Chinese men to finish in the topthree at a World Cup event.

"We had a nice run together last week, proving the fast progress of Chinese snowboarding in recent years," Su said. "It feels even more significant for me to be able to share the podium with my teammate and fly the national flag together."

However, the big air discipline's reigning world champion Ryoma Kimata of Japan, who finished third in Chongli, his compatriot Hiroto Ogiwara, last year's winner in Shougang, and Italy's spinning trick specialist Ian Matteoli will be keen to break up the party.

In the freeski discipline, China also has a serious medal contender in Liu Mengting competing in a strong women's field, led by British phenom Kirsty Muir, last week's winner in Chongli, and Swiss star Mathilde Gremaud, a multiple world champion and Olympic bronze medalist in big air at Beijing 2022.

"I am very excited to be back here in Beijing. It's such a good jump, such a good facility for us to ski at. Overall, I think I will be enjoying the competition very much here," said Muir, who's racked up six World Cup medals across both big air and slopestyle disciplines since 2021.

Dropping in together with Liu, last week's bronze winner, looking for a breakthrough podium finish will be another Chinese rising skier Yang Ruyi, who finished a disappointing 14th at the season opener in Chongli, and at seventh last year at Shougang.

A total of 177 athletes have signed up for the freeski and snowboard qualification rounds on Thursday and Friday, respectively, with the final sessions set to take place on Saturday.

Chad Buchholz, media coordinator from the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, said everything is all set for an Olympic-standard event at the World Cup series' fourth visit to the landmark venue.

"I think it's been said many times that this is one of the finest, if not the best, big air facilities in the world, where we've had some incredible competitions here over the years," Buchholz said on Tuesday.

"The quality of the organization, the facilities and the competition continue to get better every year. We've seen some just fantastic competitions here over the years, and I'm looking forward to a really strong competition on the second of our three straight World Cup events in China."

Next week in Chongli, the world's best freeskiers and snowboarders, led by two-time Olympic champion and fan favorite Eileen Gu, will descend at Chongli's Yunding Snow Park for the finale of the Cup series' China swing in the halfpipe discipline.