LOCAL favorite Gu Ailing qualified for the Beijing 2022 women’s freeski big air final, finishing with 161.25 points after three runs yesterday. Gu performed a left-side double cork 1080 to rank third with 89.00 points after her first run, behind Tess Ledeux of France (90.50 points) and Kirsty Muir of Britain (89.25 points). After her second run, Gu dropped to 16th place with a combined score of 113.50 after she dropped a right-side cork 900 but slipped on the landing as one of her skis fell off. Canadian Megan Oldham, who finished fourth in her World Championship debut at Aspen in 2021, delivered a stunning run to score a race-high 91.25 points. In the third and final run, Gu stomped the same tricks as her second run to receive 72.25 points to qualify for the finals with a combination of best two runs out of three — 161.25 points. Oldham, Ledeux, Russian Anastasia Tatalina and Sandra Eie of Norway occupied the top four spots, while Gu’s compatriot Yang Shuorui failed to qualify for the final. “The wind switched in between the first and second run that you can see a lot of people were going slow,” said Gu. “I didn’t really notice until it was too late.” The 18-year-old admitted there was “a lot of pressure” going into the third run. “I’m happy to be able to perform under pressure and I think it speaks a lot to the volume of mental training that I’ve been putting on.” Gu took time out to speak exclusively with Olympics.com after her qualification runs and looked ahead to the big medal competition today. “I’m very relieved to make the final,” Gu said. “I didn’t expect to cut it that close, I’m not going to lie. But at the end of the day the goal is to make finals and not to win qualis [qualification runs], so I think that today was a testament to my ability to handle pressure and to handle mishaps, because it happens to everyone. “Equipment malfunctions happen to everybody. Wind changes on everybody. That being said, hopefully finals is a little bit smoother than that and I don’t have to cut it that close.” Gu maintained her typical happy-go-lucky aura after the qualification run. “I’m a very introverted person naturally,” she said. “I do a lot of journaling and self reflection. I play piano a lot. Actually I have a keyboard here with me. It’s really small but I just have it in my room, so I play piano, and I compose stuff. “At night I take really long showers, I meditate... all of those things help to keep to myself and stay in my own head as opposed to listening to all these voices, who you know, 90 percent of the time don’t know what they’re talking about.” So what’s been the best part of being back home for the Winter Olympics? “The food for sure! I’ve been eating dumplings pretty much every meal that they’re available. And just the support, the fans, the crowd. ... I’m really honored.” “This Olympics is everything I could’ve dreamed of and more. Being surrounded by the Beijing accent and hearing Chinese again is really refreshing,” the Chinese star told reporters. Gu is the first woman to pull off a 1440 double cork, a move consisting of four, complete 360-degree rotations. So, what can’t she do? “I’m really messy. My mom says it’s my worst quality because I don’t make my bed the way she wants me to,” she said. (SD-Xinhua) | 