China’s Xu Mengtao finally claimed Beijing Winter Olympics gold when she triumphed in a dramatic final of the freestyle skiing women’s aerials on home snow in Zhangjiakou on Monday, producing a spectacular jump as most of her main rivals faltered. “I am number one. We have won. I have finally won at home,” Xu shouted with the Chinese flag draped around her. She shed tears of joy as she received the ceremonial doll on the podium, with staff at the Games yelling “Xu Mengtao, you are the best !” as they held up a Chinese flag. On a day when big air gold medallist Eileen Gu reappeared for the slopestyle women’s qualifiers, Sochi silver medallist and current World Cup leader Xu nailed a 108.61 effort to edge defending champion Hanna Huskova, of Belarus, with Megan Nick taking a surprise bronze for the United States. Eight years from her silver medal performance at 2014 OWG in Sochi, Xu Mengtao 🇨🇳 stepped it up a notch tonight and claimed the GOLD 🥇 in women’s aerials event at @Beijing2022 @Olympics ⁰⁰Hannah Huskova 🇧🇾 walked away with silver 🥈, while Megan Nick 🇺🇸 won the bronze 🥉 👏 pic.twitter.com/eTJICyjLlF — FISfreestyle (@FISfreestyle) February 14, 2022 It was China’s fifth gold medal of the Games after Gu, Gao Tingyu (men’s 500 speed skating), Ren Ziwei (men’s 1,000m short track) and China’s victorious short track mixed relay team. Xu had to wait as American Ashley Caldwell, the most impressive performer in qualifying, attempted to beat her score, only to crash-land and spark wild celebrations among the Chinese supporters. It was China’s first victory in the event after five silver medals since it was added to the Games programme in 1994. Caldwell finished fourth, one place ahead of world champion and favourite Laura Peel of Australia, who had a final to forget. On a bitterly cold night, a gusting, northerly wind brought the temperature down to -23 Celsius and made jumping difficult. Gu, meanwhile, comfortably qualified for the finals of the slopestyle finishing third in the second run with the top 12 athletes advancing. The San Francisco-born part-time model is chasing a potential hat-trick of golds in Beijing. American Kaillie Humphries made history by taking gold in the inaugural monobob event for women. “This is a huge honour,” Humphries, who won gold in 2010 and 2014 for Canada in the two-woman bobsleigh, said. “This last four years has been a battle and nothing was guaranteed. I joined a new country, in a brand new event, there was so much uncertainty. “All I could do was make the most of my opportunities, and know that was enough. I have gratitude and happiness.” Elana Meyers Taylor, of the US, took silver with bronze going to Canada’s Christine de Brun. There was gold for France in the figure skating ice dance event, with Guillaume Cizeron and Gabriella Papadakis finishing ahead of Russians Nikita Katslapov and Victoria Sinitsina (silver), and Americans Zachary Donohue and Madison Hubbell (bronze). Austria won the men’s ski jumping team competition, with Slovenia finishing second and Germany taking the bronze. Meanwhile, Japan’s two-time Olympic champion figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu, who finished fourth in Beijing, quashed rumours of retirement at a jam-packed press conference on Monday night. Fans were caught off guard after the Japanese Olympic Committee confirmed the two-time Olympic champion wanted to hold a separate press conference from his standard media scrums after failing to defend his title last week. Knowing that there would be several questions marks over his future – such as whether he would continue in the sport, if he was injured, and if the fabled quest to land the first-ever in-competition quadruple axel (4A) was done and dusted – Hanyu called a wider press conference to address everything at once. “I don’t know if these will be my last Olympics,” Hanyu said in Japanese, his simultaneously interpreted responses documented by figure skating journalist Jackie Wong of Rocket Skating. “I feel the Olympics are so special. I was injured, but I could get back on my feet and take on this challenge. It’s the only stage where a skater can do that. “I would love to skate against at the Olympics, because performing in such an atmosphere makes me so happy. I’m so lucky that I’m Yuzuru Hanyu.”