China's aerialists excel at home with sweep at Secret Garden
Dec 20, 2025·Freestyle)
There was always an expectation that Team China would thrive at Secret Garden, as they competed on home snow and familiar grounds for the latest stop of the Aerials World Cup.
They lived up to the billing, taking one-two in the men’s competition and a clean sweep of the women’s podium en route to claiming victory in both events.
Despite a day of challenging conditions, Li Tianma (CHN) was dominant as he won men’s Aerials, while Kong Fanyu was top in the women’s event. Overall, Chinese aerialists occupied five of six podium spots available.
In the women’s event, all of the top three skiers defied the gusty conditions to book their place on the podium with gutsy back full-full-fulls.
Kong Fanyu (CHN) posted the best score at the Yunding Snow Park, stomping an impressive Back Full-Full-Full in the superfinal to score 102.17 points.
It is a first World Cup win in four years for Kong, after her 2021/22 win at Ruka, and a first trip to the top of a podium since her world championships title in 2023 in Bakuriani.
Said Kong: “Everyone performed tremendously today. I congratulate my competitors for giving everyone a good show, as well as my teammates for taking the podium.”
She was the only one of the day to cross the 100-point milestone, and was followed closely by two teammates. Chen Meiting took second place (97.45), while reigning Olympic champion and yellow jersey holder Xu Mengtao (CHN) was third with a 97.02 effort.
With less than three months to go before a fifth run at the Olympic Games, 35-year-old Xu is looking in fine form. Her result in Secret Garden – where she won 2022 Olympic gold – means she extends her lead at the top of the World Cup standings.
She is ahead of two teammates – Chen is 20 points behind, while Kong is a further four points behind.
The men’s competition also featured top-class performances, with a minimum of 106.64 needed to make the six-strong superfinal.
Li showed he has a knack for performing at home, stomping a Back Double Full-Double Full-Full to score 128.01 points.
Said the 24-year-old: “I’m really happy with how things went today. I wanted to raise the degree of difficulty in the superfinal and I was able to do that. It was not easy to jump in these conditions today, but it’s a great confidence booster to me that I was able to do it.
“Everyone was jumping very well. There’s nothing to say except just focus on my own jumps.”
Li finished ahead of Olympic champion Qi Guangpu, who scored 120.80 with a Back Full-Double Full-Full. Noé Roth (SUI), who attempted the same trick as Li, was third with 110.67.
With that win, Li takes the top spot of the World Cup standings, with a 45-point lead over Oleksandr Okipniuk (UKR). The Ukrainian was forced to miss competing in Secret Garden due to illness.
Qi, who did not make the final at the first stop in Ruka, is now up to fourth place.
The result is a sign of what to expect from China, ahead of the mixed team event taking place on 21 December. Competition begins from 14:00 local time.
QUICK LINKS
Secret Garden World Cup FIS data page (start lists, results, etc)
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