Freestyle Skiing 2018/Women's aerials

Women's aerials
General information
Sport	Freestyle Skiing 2018
Date	16 February 2018
Competitors	25 athletes
Venue	Phoenix Snow Park
Previous medalists
Gold	Alla Tsuper
Silver	Xu Mengtao
Bronze	Lydia Lassila
Conditions
Temperature	-4°C / 24.8°F
Forerunners
Forerunner	Guo Ziming China
Forerunner	Xu Nuo China
Medalists
	Hanna Huskova
	Zhang Xin
	Kong Fanyu

The women's aerials of Freestyle Skiing 2018 during the 2018 Winter Olympics was held on 16 February 2018 in the Phoenix Snow Park. With 25 athletes competing, the event was won by Hanna Huskova from Belarus, with Zhang Xin from China taking the silver medal and Kong Fanyu from China taking bronze.

Format

The competition exists out of two phases. The qualification phase exists out of two rounds, with athletes jumping once in each round. The six highest scores of the first qualification directly qualify for the final, while the remaining athletes compete in the second round. In the second round, the top six competitors qualify for the final, counting the best score in either round of the qualification.

The final phase exists out of three rounds, each with one jump. After each round, the lowest three scores of that round are out of the competition. The competitor with the highest score in the final round of the final is the winner.

Preview

Twenty-five athletes qualified for the event with Alla Tsuper as the reigning Olympic champion, while reigning medalists Xu Mengtao, who was the favorite to win gold, and Lydia Lassila, also the former Olympic champion of 2010, returned as well. Xu was the leading athlete in the rankings over the season, while some younger athletes were chasing her on this board. Among this younger generation were Belarusian Hanna Huskova, Kristina Spiridonova representing the Olympic Athletes from Russia, and Belarusian Aliaksandra Ramanouskaya. Outsiders included Danielle Scott, Kiley McKinnon, and Ashley Caldwell.

Summary

Qualification 1

The top 6 of the first qualification would go through to the final, while the remaining 19 would have another chance in the second round of the qualification. The athletes who went directly to the finals were Alexandra Orlova, Hanna Huskova, Xu Mentao, Kristina Spiridonova, Danielle Scott and Zhang Xin. Reigning Olympic champion Alla Tsuper was only on 15th place after the first round, and she would have to improve herself, in order to go to the final. The same applied to two-time medalist Lydia Lassila, who was 18th after the first round.

Qualification 1 Results
Rank	Nat.	Name	Score
1		Alexandra Orlova	102.22
2		Hanna Huskova	100.45
3		Xu Mengtao	99.37
4		Kristina Spiridonova	97.64
5		Danielle Scott	93.76
6		Zhang Xin	90.24
7		Kong Fanyu	89.77
8		Liubov Nikitina	88.83
9		Madison Olsen	87.88
10		Olga Polyuk	82.21
11		Ashley Caldwell	81.81
12		Zhanbota Aldabergenova	81.07
13		Yan Ting	80.95
14		Marzhan Akzhigit	79.17
15		Alla Tsuper	77.90
16		Catrine Lavallee	73.08
17		Kiley McKinnon	72.26
18		Lydia Lassila	66.27
19		Laura Peel	64.86
20		Alina Gridneva	60.16
21		Akmarzhan Kalmurzayeva	58.58
22		Samantha Wells	54.28
23		Ayana Zholdas	51.01
24		Aliaksandra Ramanouskaya	38.85
25		Kim Kyoung-eun	35.67

Qualification 2

The second round of the qualification would see the remaining 19 athletes jumping again to contend for the top 6 placements. The scores of the first round remained, with the highest score of two jumps counting. Alla Tsuper took revenge for her low score in the first jump, getting a score of almost 100 points, taking the top spot in the second round of the qualification. Kong Fanyu, who was in pole position to go through, improved her score yet again, securing her of a place in the final, while Australian Laura Peel, Liubov Nikitina and Americans Kiley McKinnon and Madison Olsen advanced as well. Lydia Lassila disappointed with only the 14th score in the second round, while Ashley Caldwell, an outsider for the title and reigning world champion, failed to qualify as well.

Qualification 2 Results
Rank	Nat.	Name	Qual. 1	Qual. 2
1		Alla Tsuper	77.90	99.37
2		Kong Fanyu	89.77	95.17
3		Laura Peel	64.86	89.46
4		Liubov Nikitina	88.83	84.24
5		Kiley McKinnon	72.26	87.88
6		Madison Olsen	87.88	80.04
7		Zhanbota Aldabergenova	81.07	85.36
8		Aliaksandra Ramanouskaya	38.85	83.65
9		Yan Ting	80.95	82.94
10		Olga Polyuk	82.21	55.50
11		Ashley Caldwell	81.81	55.86
12		Marzhan Akzhigit	79.17	70.20
13		Catrine Lavallee	73.08	71.34
14		Lydia Lassila	66.27	63.45
15		Alina Gridneva	60.16	60.98
16		Akmarzhan Kalmurzayeva	58.58	47.32
17		Samantha Wells	54.28	58.27
18		Ayana Zholdas	51.01	57.98
19		Kim Kyoung-eun	35.67	44.20

Final 1

The first jump in the final saw 12 athletes, with 9 athletes going through to the second jump in the final. Partly due to the wind, Danielle Scott and Kristina Spiridonova fell during landing, which left them out of contention for the gold medal. Kiley McKinnon had a very deep landing, missing out on a big score, and missed the top 9 by almost 5 points difference. Huskova topped the leaderboards after the first jump, proving her potential, while favorite Xu and reigning titleholder Tsuper getting scores of over 90.

Final 1 Results
Rank	Nat.	Name	Score
1		Hanna Huskova	94.15
2		Xu Mengtao	91.00
3		Alla Tsuper	90.82
4		Kong Fanyu	89.77
5		Alexandra Orlova	89.28
6		Zhang Xin	87.25
7		Liubov Nikitina	85.68
8		Madison Olsen	85.36
9		Laura Peel	85.05
10		Kiley McKinnon	80.75
11		Kristina Spiridonova	57.64
12		Danielle Scott	57.01

Final 2

The second jump in the final would once again see three competitors leaving the competition, and once again, two participants failed to deliver. This time, top favorite Xu and Alexandra Orlova disappointed, making sure that yet another big favorite would not compete for the gold medal. The other participant for the Olympic Athletes from Russia Liubov Nikitina failed to qualify as well, while the other Chinese participants, Kong and Zhang, topped the second jump.

Final 2 Results
Rank	Nat.	Name	Score
1		Kong Fanyu	97.29
2		Zhang Xin	94.11
3		Laura Peel	85.65
4		Hanna Huskova	85.05
5		Alla Tsuper	84.00
6		Madison Olsen	83.23
7		Liubov Nikitina	80.01
8		Alexandra Orlova	61.25
9		Xu Mengtao	59.25

Final 3

The third and last jump of the final was one with difficult circumstances. The wind made jumping a real challenge, and this was proven in the scores of the athletes. Olsen, Peel, and Tsuper fell during landing and got scores below the 60 points, while Kong played it safe, but with the number of mistakes of other participants, secured herself of a bronze medal. Huskova and Zhang risked everything, Huskova hoping that the higher difficulty of the jump made the difference, while Zhang hoped on her execution. While the execution of Zhang was higher than Huskova's, the difference made by the difficulty was determining, leaving Huskova as the Olympic champion.

Final 3 Results
Rank	Nat.	Name	Score
1		Hanna Huskova	96.14
2		Zhang Xin	95.52
3		Kong Fanyu	70.14
4		Alla Tsuper	59.94
5		Laura Peel	55.34
6		Madison Olsen	47.23

Results

Hanna Huskova won the gold medal after she failed to qualify for the final of the previous edition of the event. Zhang Xin, who won silver, narrowly missed the final in 2014 too, finishing 13th in the event in Sochi. Kong Fanyu won the bronze medal at her Olympic debut, leaving defending champion Alla Tsuper behind her.

Result	Athlete	Nationality
	Hanna Huskova	Belarus
	Zhang Xin	China
	Kong Fanyu	China
4	Alla Tsuper	Belarus
5	Laura Peel	Australia
6	Madison Olsen	United States
7	Liubov Nikitina	Olympic Athletes from Russia
8	Alexandra Orlova	Olympic Athletes from Russia
9	Xu Mengtao	China
10	Kiley McKinnon	United States
11	Kristina Spiridonova	Olympic Athletes from Russia
12	Danielle Scott	Australia
13	Zhanbota Aldabergenova	Kazakhstan
14	Aliaksandra Ramanouskaya	Belarus
15	Yan Ting	China
16	Olga Polyuk	Ukraine
17	Ashley Caldwell	United States
18	Marzhan Akzhigit	Kazakhstan
19	Catrine Lavallee	Canada
20	Lydia Lassila	Australia
21	Alina Gridneva	Olympic Athletes from Russia
22	Akmarzhan Kalmurzayeva	Kazakhstan
23	Samantha Wells	Australia
24	Ayana Zholdas	Kazakhstan
25	Kim Kyoung-eun	South Korea