China’s Qi Flips His Way To Gold In Aerials, USA Crushed

China’s Qi Guangpu finally flipped his way onto an Olympic podium in men’s aerials, winning a gold medal after near misses in Sochi and Pyeongchang.

Qi cleanly landed a quint-twisting triple back flip in the medal round Wednesday night, when five of his six competitors tried the same trick and only he did it clean. Qi earned 129 points, easily beating defending champion Oleksandr Abramenko of Ukraine at 116.5.

Ilia Burov of the ROC downgraded to a quad-twisting triple as the event’s last competitor, knowing that a clean back full-full-double full would be enough for the podium. He earned bronze at the second straight Olympics.

It was heartbreak for the United States who missed out on a podium finish following a disappointing Super Final jump that saw both Schoenefeld and Lillis finish in the bottom two positions.

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

Just a year after Japan’s summer Olympics, the Games are back for a winter show in Beijing, China. The unusually short gap between Games is due to the ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Strict precautions and enforced virus prevention protocol are in place to help keep athletes, coaches and personnel safe. 

Beijing is the capital of China, with a population of more than 20 million people and the first city to host both a Summer and Winter Olympic games. It is one of the largest cities in the world and 15 hours ahead of Mountain Time. There are 13 different venues in and around Beijing that will be used for the Winter Olympics. A total of 109 events will be held in 15 different sports, and there will be a lot of Utah locals competing for medals. Keep up to date with them at our Olympic headquarters.

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• Sam Farnsworth
• Alex Cabrero
• Debbie Worthen