Halfpipe hero Tongtong ready to show 'best self' at Winter Olympics after UFC training

Cai Xuetong's rise to snowboard royalty has an air of destiny about it.

Born in Harbin, 'City of Ice,' the Chinese character 雪 (xuě) in her name means 'snow', but little did her parents know that by 16 their daughter would already be topping global snowboard podiums.

In 2009, she became the first Chinese snowboarder to win the FIS World Youth Snowboarding Championships, blazing a trail for Chinese shredders.

Fast forward 13 years and 'Tongtong' is a double world champion, landing 27 podiums at 37 World Cups with 12 wins.

厉害 (lìhai) as they say in China - awesome.

A pioneer who's been dropping into the U since 2003, she also lights up social media, from dancing with a mammoth in California to her latest halfpipe tricks.

With the Beijing 2022 Winter Oympic Games in her back yard this February, Cai is ready to set the snow on fire at her fourth Olympics and claim the biggest prize of all: that elusive Olympic medal.

"I just want to be at the Beijing Winter Olympics. It's time to show my best self," she said on Chinese TV station CCTV.

Cai Xuetong: On fire approaching Beijing 2022

Things look pretty good for Cai before Beijing.

World champion in 2015 and 2017, silver in 2019, 2020 U.S. Open champ (The first Chinese snowboarder ever to win it), and almost flawless in December 2021 at the Olympic warm-up on Copper Mountain.

The 28-year-old nailed a beautiful backside air on her final run, a massive frontside 900 weddle grab into a backside 540 weddle, an air-to-fakie melon, and a crowning cab 900 melon.

An 80.50 score lifted her above Japan’s Sena Tomita into first place and lay down a serious marker for Beijing.

Tongtong has come a long way from humble beginnings in Harbin.

Cai Xuetong: The rise of Tongtong - China's snowboard superstar

Born in Harbin - known as 'Ice City' - in China's north-eastern Heilongjiang province in 1993, there was practically no snowboard halfpipe scene to speak of in China at the time.

She was ten before she even began to drop in on the pipe, a school sports coach spotting her athletic ability - while roller skating - and encouraged her to give it a go.

China was getting serious about its Olympic halfpipe team around then and Tongtong's talent was right on time.

From an amateur sports school for promising athletes to the Heilongjiang Snow Training Center, and then to the Harbin Institute of Physical Education, she was a natural.

Big air and even bigger tricks came through the Chinese coaching method of discipline, reps, hard work and commitment.

By 16 she was already rocking the Youth Snowboard Championships, and so much more was to follow on her Olympic journey.

Cai Xuetong at the Olympics

Despite being a double world champ, Tongtong has yet to step on an Olympic podium.

At Vancouver 2010, Cai was the youngest competitor on the pipe at 17, watching on as Australia's Torah Bright took gold.

Four years later at Sochi 2014, the Chinese star was carrying a bad injury but still managed to finished 6th. Kaitlyn Farrington claimed back gold for the USA that year.

At PyeongChang 2018, Tongtong was on top of her game and the nailed-on favourite to win.

But a couple of mistakes led to an early exit. While Chloe Kim stole the show with her spectacular 1080s and claimed gold, there was joy for Chinese snowboarding too as Tongtong's teammate Liu Jiayu stepped up to receive a silver medal - a first ever snowboard halfpipe medal for China, men or women.

"The year before PyeongChang I was doing two difficult tricks," Cai mused recently on CCTV.

"At that time, I wanted to do both the frontside 900 and a switch backside 900 in one set of moves, which could give me a better ranking."

"But when I entered the Olympic cycle, I just couldn't make that move. It might have been that invisible pressure was on me."

Cai Xuetong at Beijing 2022: "Time to show my best self"

Now Cai and Liu have to try and compete with Chloe Kim and a new rising generation of young boarders they have inspired after an explosion in popularity in the sport.

But that isn't easy during a pandemic with cancelled competitions and travel off the table for months and months at a time.

Both Cai and Liu have been preparing for battle at the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Performance Institute in Shanghai under German trainer Felix Falkenberg - UFC sport science and performance manager.

“In the half-pipe, I always challenge myself to do the harder tricks. That’s why we’re at the UFC,” Cai explained to the South China Morning Post in September 2021.

“Physical conditioning will help me get in better condition for the snow so I can try more difficult tricks," and she also talked about teamwork, "we Chinese athletes, we travel together and we push each other to get better and better.”

Now an experienced pro-tourer, Tongtong has learned to deal with the pressure too.

"I don't take the results so seriously," she says. "And when I don't have expectations for myself, the results will make me happy."

When asked about Beijing 2022 Cai keeps it simple, "I just want to be at the Beijing Winter Olympics. It's time to show my best self."

A snowboarding trailblazer, her new relaxed approach might just take her all the way to the top at her home Games.

But Cai knows too that it's about much more than a medal, telling the SCMP:

“I’m looking forward to the Olympics. I know China will show the world something really big... And I always want to show my best performance to the people of China. I want the people to see this sport, and to know more about snowboarding. And after the Olympics, I hope more people will join us.”