China's Li Fanghui claims first gold at Asian Winter Games

(ECNS) -- Chinese athlete Li Fanghui won the championship in the women's freeski halfpipe final on Saturday in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province. This marks the first gold medal for the Chinese sports delegation at the 9th Asian Winter Games and first snow event gold at this competition.

Another Chinese player, Zhang Kexin, finished second.

In the first round of the final, Li, who was the second to compete, delivered an almost flawless performance and scored an impressive 93 points.

Then, Zhang earned 87.50 points. After the first round, both Chinese athletes held the top two positions with a significant lead.

In the following two rounds, none of the four South Korean athletes managed to surpass them, while Li further improved her score to 95.25 points.

Eileen Gu was originally the favorite to win the event. However, she sustained an injury at the X Games Aspen 2025 half a month ago and was injured again during her recovery training, ultimately missing the Asian Winter Games.

Li, as a substitute for Olympics gold medalist Gu, arrived at the competition zone on Thursday night.

The women's freeski halfpipe final consists of three runs, with the best score from any used to determine the final ranking. Judges evaluate the performances based on several factors, including difficulty of the moves, execution quality, variety of tricks, air height, and innovation.