The women’s big air was back in the disused steel factories of Shijingshan, Beijing, for the finals. And this final didn’t disappoint after the relatively safe runs put down by the competitors in yesterday’s qualification with dub 1260s, 1440s and 1620s were being thrown by nearly all the competitors, showing how progressive the women’s field is.
The latter of those tricks, the dub 1620, had only been thrown previously in the Aspen X Games by Tess Ledeux. The finals began with the usual dub 12s and 14s being thrown, before Tess launched her now signature dub 16 to lead the first run with a score of 94.5.
American-born Chinese competitor Eileen Gu has recently been hinting that she also has a dub 16 in her trick bag and, as Gu’s first in a competition, she threw it down on her final run. This landed her in a tied position with Ladeux with a score of 94.50.
When it came to Ledux’s final run, the Frenchwoman couldn’t land her planned switch 1440, landing on one foot, which docked her score down to 73.25. Having led the first two heats, Ledeux was visibly gutted to have not landed that run cleanly. The combined scores were 188.25 for Gu and 187.50 for Ledeux. Mathilde Gremaud came in bronze position with a solid 182.50.
On the British side of things, 17-year-old Kirsty Muir placed an impressive fifth after sending a huge dub 12, putting the first score in the nineties on the board. Kirsty’s next runs landed her a 78 and 15, having fallen short on technicalities. There’s sure to be exciting things to come from Kirsty in the Olympics, X Games and World Cups.