China's Zhang Xiaonan wins gold in women's snowboard slopestyle

Chinese snowboarder Zhang Xiaonan, 18, delivered a dominant performance in the women's snowboard slopestyle event at the Asian Winter Games on Saturday, scoring 95.25 points to win the gold medal.

Zhang has been steadily rising in the sport, winning silver in the women's youth big air competition at the 14th National Winter Games in 2024. Last month, she placed fourth in the 2024-2025 FIS Snowboard and Freestyle Skiing Big Air World Cup Finals in Austria.

"I'm in great form this season, and my goal at the Asian Winter Games is to win gold in both slopestyle and big air," Zhang said.

Her performance in the final showcased her consistency, executing a series of difficult flips and smoothly navigating rails and jumps. She improved with each round, scoring 80.75, 88.75, and finally 95.25 to secure her lead.

"I made adjustments after each round. In the first round, I was relatively conservative, focusing on stability, while the following two rounds were the time for me to go all out," she said.

China's Xiong Shirui took silver with 75.25 points, while Japan's Ishii Himari claimed bronze with 69.50.

"I'm not satisfied with my performance today. I was aiming for gold, but I'm still happy to win silver. I just feel like I could have done better," Xiong said.

She thought one reason her performance today wasn't that good was she wasn't confident enough in herself, which led to a pretty average performance in her last two runs.

Despite the challenges, she praised the conditions at Yabuli. "The snow quality was excellent! It's the best time of the season, and with all the fresh snowfall, the jumps felt really smooth. The only issue was the strong wind," the 17-year-old said.

In the men's snowboard slopestyle event, China's Liu Haoyu secured silver, while South Korea's Lee Chaeun took gold and Kang Donghun claimed bronze.

liyingxue@chinadaily.com.cn