French freestyle skier Tess Ledeux wins Beijing leg of World Cup

For French freestyle skier Tess Ledeux, third time has proved the charm with her attempt to conquer the giant slope at Big Air Shougang in the Chinese capital.

Riding against a strong field of multiple world championships winners and Olympic medalist, Ledeux put on her best performance in her third time competing at the Big Air slope in west Beijing's Shougang Industrial Park by stomping two dazzling tricks in the final to win the World Cup series' Beijing leg on Sunday.

The win has made up for her disappointing near miss at the same venue over two years ago when Ledeux had to settle with a silver medal, outperformed by home favorite Eileen Gu, at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, while placing her one title ahead of Gu to lead all-women's skiers with a total number of 16 career freeski World Cup wins.

Gu, the reigning Olympic champion in Big Air and halfpipe, has racked up 15 gold medals on the World Cup series across three disciplines, including slopestyle.

Reflecting on her solid final runs on Sunday, Ledeux, who celebrated her 23rd birthday last week, said it all felt right with everything going into Sunday afternoon's final round.

"Maybe third time is the charm," said Ledeux, who finished at the bottom of the eight-skier final at the same event last year after landing only one of her three final runs.

"I have no idea (of how I performed so well today). All the girls skied so well today and I landed my tricks they way I wanted, and yeah finally being on top of the podium. I just feel good, really good," said Ledeux, who won the final with an accumulated score of 168.25 points from her first and second runs in the final.

Sarah Hoefflin of Switzerland finished second with 163.00 points while Italy's Flora Tabanelli signed off with 159.50 points to bring home a bronze medal as she did last year at the Beijing leg.

The towering Shougang Big Air, the world's first and only permanent slope of its kind, has earned quite positive feedback from skiers for its consistent and safe conditions, and Ledeux apparently learned how to tame it in her third try.

"We know that the jump is always really nice here. We knew what to expect every time we came here with the conditions quite consistent. ... I love Beijing. I'm really a big fan of the food and yeah I love this place."

Two Chinese skiers Liu Mengting and Yang Ruyi made it into the top-eight women's final, yet neither managed to land two tricks clean and well enough to challenge for the podium.

"I think we just picked up a lot of confidence knowing that we've already been able to compete with the world's best at this stage. The gap (between us and the top skiers) remains but we are confident to catch up with them quickly," said Liu, who finished sixth in the final, one place higher than Yang.

Competition in qualification rounds and finals in Beijing adopted a three-run format, with the combined score of each skier's best two jumps counting in the rankings.