Veteran Winter Olympians: Embodiments of the Olympic Spirit (3)

 Xu Mengtao: "We have won. I have finally won on my home front."

China's veteran Xu Mengtao, now 31 years old, claimed the women's aerials freestyle skiing gold medal on Feb. 14, 2022. This was China's first-ever gold medal for this event and also the first Winter Olympics gold medal Xu, a four-time Olympian, won in her remarkable career.

Xu's 16 years of perseverance was even more impressive than securing the top spot on the podium. Before Beijing 2022, she failed to win the gold medal in three consecutive attempts, but she never thought about giving up.

"I never thought about retirement," she said in a previous interview with CGTN. "My only wish now is to win the first gold medal for the Chinese Women Aerials Team at the Winter Olympics and see the Chinese national flag flying at the top."

It takes four years of dedicated practice for only a few seconds of high-level performance inside the arena. To compete for the gold medal, Xu kept pushing the limits of her body to master the highest-scoring and most extreme tricks. Xu, no longer a young athlete, is exhausted by her many injuries sustained during multiple years of high-intensity routine training. But her efforts and personal sacrifice have paid off.

During the competition, Xu stomped a back-full-full-full in near perfection, registering a match-best 108.61 points among the six skiers competing in the second run during the final round Her winning trick brought the few audience members in the grandstands to their feet and caused them to cheer loudly. With much delight upon winning gold, Xu rejoiced repeatedly and let her emotions be known.

"We have won. I have finally won on my home front," Xu enthused . "I'm just super excited. This is the first gold medal by China in women's aerials, and it's just super cool."