Medals update: Team USA surprise People's Republic of China to claim gold in mixed team aerials

In a surprise for the host nation at Beijing 2022, it was Team USA who took gold in the inaugural mixed team aerial event at the Genting Snow Park on Thursday (10 February). The American trio of Ashley Caldwell, Christopher Lillis and Justin Schoenefeld screamed with delight on winning the Olympic title with a combined score of 338.34 while a shell-shocked Chinese team of Xu Mengtao, Jia Zongyang and Qi Guangpu claimed silver with 324.22 after a mistake from Jia.

In a further twist, Team Canada's Marion Thenault, Miha Fontaine and Lewis Irving won bronze (290.982) ahead of Switzerland (276.01) in a topsy-turvy final that threw away the form book.

Furthermore, ROC, who were favourites to take a medal did not make the final, nor did Belarus finishing fifth and sixth, respectively.

The first ever mixed aerials competition at an Olympic Games was a thriller from start to finish. Even before we got to the four-team final, ROC and Belarus had surprisingly left the field of play.

That left the People’s Republic of China as the ones to beat and they started strongly with Xu, the only woman in the first round to land a clean jump. The next two rounds saw all nations chose male athletes as their next two competitors, not always a given considering the higher difficulty of the men's events can also mean more mistakes.

America’s Lillis, however, performed a spectacular quint triple for the highest score of the competition, a 135.00, while Jia proved the adage by somersaulting forwards on landing, scoring 96.02.

Schoenefeld still had to perform a clean double full-full-full in the last run for the Americans, which he did, despite a slight bend of his legs on landing, scoring 114.48. The US coach had dropped to his knees on seeing Schoenefeld’s landing and screamed, knowing it would take something extraordinary from China to now beat the Americans. But it was still a possibility if Qi could perform an absolutely perfect jump.

Qi did indeed perform a near-perfect run but on a lower-ranked jump than Schoenefeld it wasn’t enough to beat the Americans, and the home side claimed silver.

Eighteen-year-old showman Fontaine performed a lay double full full showcasing beautiful from despite a slight wheelie on landing scoring 116.48 to keep Canada in the bronze-medal position.

America's Caldwell said after the event: "I’m incredibly proud and honoured and [it’s] surreal and to do it on my fourth Games, I’ve been on the hunt for this for a long time and to do it with two of my best friends is incredible.

"Aerials is incredibly difficult and scary sports. I’ve always said this that, you know, at the top of the hill, we know what each other is going through and that builds a bond. We have so much mutual respect for everyone on the hill. And [we’ve] never really had a lot of team events. So this is built a definitely a different atmosphere. It’s very fun.

"It was an out-of-body experience today. There’s a lot of a lot of anxiety and nerves and stress and excitement. I can feel the crowd, but also I felt like just so intensely into the competition that it’s a it’s a relief to to be standing at the top of the podium now."

Schoenfeld added: "I haven't stopped smiling for like 30 minutes and my cheeks are starting to get sore, but it's seriously the greatest feeling. I just won the biggest competition in the world, especially with two of my best friends.
I'm dating my team mate, Ashley Caldwell, and we've been together for a couple of years now and Chris Lillis, we lived together growing up when I was on the development team and we've just all trained together and been around each other for so many years now. We're just we just become such good friends now."

Xu revealed what she said to teammate Jia after his run. "I told him that it was OK, sometimes it happens. All we could (do) at that point was to cheer on our teammate QI Guangpu and encourage him to land his final jump and that was all.

"It's a sport of uncertainties. The added scores are always changing after every athlete, and as the first athlete on our team all I wanted to do is the lay a solid foundation for my whole team. I just wanted my teammates to have fun and perform well tonight.

"We feel very well, we did good jumps, I'm proud of my teammates but I have to congratulate with team USA because they did well."

Jia added: "I can achieve these tricks because I practise very hard my whole life and I got support from my coach and everyone who helped me."

"To carry on the legacy of my family in freestyle skiing I don’t have words enough to describe it," said 18-year-old Fontaine whose father, Nicolas is a three-time Olympian himself.

The next freestyle skiing event is Sunday 13 February with qualification in women’s slopestyle and women’s aerials. See the full schedule here.