Guo Xinxin
(Li Nina got silver)
Guo, who captured a bronze at the 2005 World Championships with her bold
triple-somersault routine, had joined the fledgling aerials team not because of
a love of snow—she still admits to hating cold weather—but because her family
thought skiing offered her greater educational opportunities than acrobatics.
Training to become a contortionist was so intense that at age 11, Guo attended
school for only a couple of hours per week. The freestyle coaches promised
half-day study sessions five days a week. The 22-year-old is now enrolled as a
college student at the Shenyang Institute of Physical Education and is on track
to graduate in July. Nevertheless, Guo lets slip that her athletic schedule is
so packed that she doesn't actually attend classes. Her major, unsurprisingly,
is skiing; time on the slopes counts as credit.
SAUZE D'OULX, Italy, Feb. 22 (Xinhuanet By Chang Ailing) -- After a shocking
crash, women's aerials top favorite Guo Xinxin of China handed the Olympic gold
medal over to Evelyne Leu of Switzerland at the Turin Winter Olympics here
Wednesday evening.
The 22-year-old Guo led the first round of the final with a perfect
back-lay-full-full jump, which earned her 103.17 points.
She followed it up with a more difficult triple twisting back-full-full-full in
the second round, crashing forward on the slope to finish seventh.
With tears lingering in eyes, Guo smiled to the camera. "I know I missed the
opportunity. I landed well but then fell. But I believe I'll do better. I
believe I'll have the medal in 2010."
In contrast to Guo, Swiss Leu, who was fifth after the first jump, rose to the
top position with a perfect triple twisting. Shewon the gold with an aggregated
point of 202.55.
Leu said she was surprised she completed the difficult jump perfectly, since she
hadn't done it much in the season. She decided to take the risk to strike for a
medal since she was only placed fifth after the first jump.
"I was always thinking I could beat them (Chinese aerialists), but I also knew
it was really close," she said.
China's LI Nina in the finals of Women's Aerials at the Turin 2006 Winter
Olympic Games at Sauze d'Oulx, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006. (Xinhua photo)
"I am so happy that I did a good jump. And I win with this jump," she said.
On Guo's crash, she said "that was quite bad because she was right there on the
landing. It was good for me, but it was not so good for her."
China's Li Nina, the current World Cup leader, won the silver.
"It's really a pity that we didn't get the gold medal and for me the second jump
wasn't perfect," she said.
Li was originally to perform her second jump with a difficulty degree of 3.900.
But she lowered it to 3.525 after the first jump.
"If I felt good before the second jump then I would do the 3.900 one. But due to
the weather and my back injury, I didn't feel comfortable with that jump. I only
did it twice this season and I am not one hundred percent sure that I can
complete it. So I decided to do a jump that I feel confident of," she said.
Australia's Alisa Camplin, the gold medalist of the Salt Lake City Games, got
the bronze. Camplin tore her anterior cruciate ligament in October 2005. She
came to Turin after a radical surgery.
Camplin's teammate, Jacqui Cooper, who topped the qualifications, finished
eighth after two stumbling landings.
