Aerials, Men

All three of the medalists from the previous Olympics, champion Oleksandr Abramenko of Ukraine, runner-up Jia Zongyang of China, and third-placer Ilya Burov of Russia returned to Beijing in 2022 to challenge for the podium once more. Of them, Abramenko had seen the most success, being runner-up at the 2019 World Championships. That event had been won by Ilya’s brother Maksim, who had also won the 2021 edition, as well as four of the six times the event had been held during the most recent World Cup season.

In a surprise, however, Maksim was unable to qualify for the final, while Ilya only made it there in the second qualifying round. The top qualifier was China’s Qi Guangpu, a four-time Olympian who had not been a major international factor since before the PyeongChang Games. Jia was the runner-up in qualifying, while Abramenko was fifth.

The best performer in the first round of the final was Switzerland’s Pirmin Werner, a silver medalist in the mixed aerials at the most recent World Championships. Ilya Burov then achieved the highest score in the tournament during the second jump, while neither of Jia’s scores were sufficient for him to advance to final 2. With the scores wiped for the last jump, Qi pulled off a performance far superior to anyone else in the round and won gold with ease. Abramenko took silver with 12.5 fewer points than Qi, while Ilya Burov was third, leaving Werner just off the podium in fourth.