WORTH THE WEIGHT

Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

Carrying a whole nation's expectations on his young shoulders for a second straight time on the world's biggest stage, China's snowboarding sensation Su Yiming confessed he almost couldn't bear it when the mounting pressure took the fun out of his ride.

The weight of Su's Beijing 2022 big air gold medal proved too heavy, his crown slowing him down on the slope and tripping him up when trying new tricks, until he managed to shed the burden — by losing it.

Eleven days after coming up short in defense of his big air title at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, settling for bronze, Su, finally cut free from the anchor of expectation, soared to victory by dominating a strong field with his stylish and fearless runs to win his career-first gold medal in slopestyle on Wednesday.

By performing a series of dazzling tricks on rails and off ramps at the Livigno Snow Park, Su earned 82.41 points from his first run, edging out the 82.13-point first-run effort of Japan's Taiga Hasegawa and American rider Jake Canter's 79.36-point third run to claim gold in the technically challenging event, where, four years ago, Su had to settle for silver.

The victory not only delivered the entire Chinese delegation's first gold at the Games, but had Su feeling over the moon after claiming the title during the Spring Festival — and on his 22nd birthday.

"There's a lot of pressure on the shoulders for sure, trying to get this gold for Team China," said Su.

"That's what I've been thinking about since the big air. I'm so lucky to finally get this done. It means so much, putting this medal around my neck. It's so heavy."

After getting the monkey off his back and raising the red flag over an Olympic podium again, Su couldn't contain his emotions. Tears of joy and pride streamed down his face while singing the national anthem together with the large crowd of Chinese supporters who had traveled to the resort nestled deep in northern Italian Alps.

"So many emotions just came up as I started to realize that today was my birthday, and that my parents were here to support me and my coaches were out there. The emotions just came and I just couldn't stop crying," Su said.

As competitive as Su proved to be in Livigno, the journey to consecutive Olympic golds was anything but easy, with serious motivational issues arising after his huge home Games success.

He admitted he felt mentally and physically exhausted and had "lost a lot of motivation" since winning two medals on his Olympic debut at the age of 17.

Su had to take a long, 18-month break from competition to recover from the physical and mental toll of Beijing 2022, but struggled to get back in shape following a series of injuries during the 2024-25 season.

Su's long-term Japanese coach Sato Yasuhiro even joked that, when his charge returned from his sabbatical, his body looked like that of a lazy middle-aged man.

"I've been dealing with injuries; with sprained ankles. It's so hard for me to ride, even to just do some easy tricks," said Su, who found himself in an unfamiliar last place on his return to Beijing 2022's big air slope at a World Cup meet in December 2024, due to his nagging foot and shoulder injuries.

"I'm mostly just riding with the injuries, on painkillers, every single day, but it's all paid off," he said.

Now that he's back to his winning form, Yasuhiro, who's been training Su over the past seven years, along with some promising Japanese riders, believes his talented protege has not yet reached the ceiling of what he is capable of achieving.

"I think he can still improve," the Japanese coach said before the Olympics. "The big spins don't always bring the wins, so we are trying to create something new, something really complicated."

Asked whether he's done everything he wanted to on the Olympic stage, Su, although having collected four medals across two Games, insisted that his passion for snowboarding has been rekindled, and that he already has his sights set on the next Games.

"I am looking forward to keeping on elevating my level, continuing to represent my country on the world stage and preparing for the next Olympics in four years time," Su said.

Johan Eliasch, president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, heaped praise on Su's influence as a role model in popularizing the sport on a global stage.

"Having a Chinese gold medalist is huge for snow sports, huge for China, and that's exactly what we need, because we can grow the sport (in China) much faster than anywhere else in the world. And that's important," he said after presenting Su with an Olympic mascot during the award ceremony.