China’s Su Yiming competes in the snowboard men’s big air final run during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at the Big Air Shougang in Beijing, February 15, 2022. — AFP pic
BEIJING, Feb 15 — China’s 17-year-old Su Yiming became the host nation’s newest hero today after adding snowboard Big Air gold to the controversial silver he won last week at the Beijing Olympics.
The teenager scorched to the Big Air title with a runaway score of 182.50 to win his second medal at the Games, having been unlucky to only come away with silver in last week’s slopestyle.
Su took a dominant gold ahead of Norway’s Mons Roisland, on 171.75, with Canada’s Max Parrot — the slopestyle winner — taking bronze with 170.25.
Su has competed in just six World Cup events but has already become the first men’s snowboarding Olympic medallist in China’s history.
“This feels insane, it’s something I’ve never experienced before… I can’t believe I got this gold,” said Su.
“I trained every day for the past four years. Every night I was dreaming about this moment.”
Su is a former child actor who appeared in the epic action movie The Taking of Tiger Mountain when he was eight years old, before deciding to fully dedicate himself to snowboarding.
His silver in the slopestyle had been contentious, with many experts saying that he should have been awarded gold ahead of Parrot.
Iztok Sumatic, the head judge in Beijing, subsequently told the snowboarding magazine Whitelines that they made a mistake in the scoring of Parrot.
Su put all that behind him today and said he had been motivated by competing on home snow and his passion for the sport.
“I wanted to try my best for this,” he said.
“The most important thing though is all about love. Snowboarding is not just about competition.
“You see here every rider from a different country, we’re all doing the same thing — we love snowboarding.
“This is just out of our love.” — AFP