Earlier on Thursday, China's freeski golden girl Gu Ailing took a step closer to becoming the first athlete to win medals in three different freestyle skiing events after qualifying in first place for Friday's halfpipe final at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province.

Having already won gold in the Big Air event and silver in the slopestyle at Beijing 2022, Gu is poised to achieve the three-medal haul, perhaps by adding a second gold, with her performance in Thursday's qualifying runs proving too good to beat.

With her back-to-back 900 tricks, Gu landed the highest-scored routine of 95.5 points for her second qualifying run, advancing effortlessly into the final.

"I was journaling last night, I wrote some affirmations, I was like, 'I am fresh. I am not tired. I am excited'," Gu said after the qualification round. "The joke is I'm actually exhausted, I'm not fresh, but I was writing in my journal to try to convince myself that I was OK."

"It's definitely not easy, but I ran a half-marathon every week over the summer to prepare. I feel proud of the work I've done to build up my endurance base, so this is what I've been preparing for."