Secret Garden 2025/26 Freestyle World Cup: Stats Preview

2025/26 FIS Freestyle World Cup Season - Secret Garden Aerials Stat Sheet 

• There are six Aerials events in the 2025/26 FIS Freestyle World Cup season, one fewer than in 2024/25. This season will see events in Ruka (FIN), Secret Garden (CHN), Lac-Beauport (CAN), Lake Placid (USA) and Deer Valley (USA). All events will count towards the qualification for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games.

• This is the second time the FIS Freestyle World Cup will have a stop at Secret Garden, returning after the 2017/18 season.

Secret Garden Aerials World Cup - Men

• Qi Guangpu (CHN) won the Aerials Crystal Globe in 2024/25 for a second consecutive season.

• Qi Guangpu (CHN) has recorded 18 Aerials World Cup event wins in his career, joint-third on the all-time list alongside Philippe Laroche (FRA) on 18, only behind Lloyd Langlois (CAN) on 21 and Steve Omischl (CAN) on 20.

• Oleksandr Okipniuk (UKR) currently leads the men’s Aerials standings after winning the opening stage in Ruka (FIN), ahead of Pirmin Werner (SUI) and Christopher Lillis (USA).

• The win in Ruka (FIN) was the first career World Cup win for Oleksandr Okipniuk (UKR), as well as his first World Cup podium. His previous best World Cup individual result was a sixth place in Deer Valley (USA) back in 2021.

• Zongyang Jia (CHN) won the last men’s Aerials event held at Secret Garden in the 2017/18 season, ahead of Maxim Gustik (BLR) and Lewis Irving (CAN). Jia and Gustik have both retired from the sport, while Irving is still competing and was 11th in Ruka this season.

• Noé Roth (SUI) ended last season with the same Aerials World Cup points as Qi Guangpu (CHN) with 400, but lost to Qi in a tiebreaker.

• Noé Roth (SUI) has won two Aerials Crystal Globes, in 2019/20 and 2022/23.

Secret Garden World Cup - Women

• Laura Peel (AUS) won the Aerials Crystal Globe last season. It marked the third Aerials Crystal Globe of her career, after 2019/20 and 2020/21.

• Laura Peel (AUS) won five of the seven women’s Aerials World Cup events last season. Xu Mengtao (CHN) won the other two.

• Reigning Olympic champion Xu Mengtao (CHN) is leading the women’s Aerials standing after winning the opening stage in Ruka (FIN), ahead of Marion Thenault (CAN) and Chen Meiting (CHN).

• The win in Ruka (FIN) was the 30th career World Cup win for Xu Mengtao (CHN).

• Xu Mengtao (CHN) is the athlete with the most Aerials World Cup wins, in both genders. The second female athlete with most World Cup wins is Jacqui Cooper (AUS), with 25 wins.

• Hanna Huskova (AIN) won the last women’s Aerials event held at Secret Garden, in the 2017/18 season, ahead of Xu Mengtao (CHN) and Ashley Caldwell (USA). Caldwell is now retired, Huskova has not competed since 2022, while Xu is preparing for her fifth Olympic campaign.

• Hanna Huskova (AIN) is returning to action this week at Secret Garden. This will be the first race at this level for Huskova since the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, where she won a silver medal. She won gold at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

• Kaila Kuhn (USA) won the women’s Aerials event at the World Championships last season. She has yet to record a top-2 finish in an Aerials World Cup event, with two third-place finishes as her best results.

• Danielle Scott (AUS) has recorded the most podium finishes in women’s Aerials events in the last two seasons combined, but none of them were wins (six second places, three third places). Her most recent Aerials FIS World Cup victory dates back to 5 March 2023, when she won in Engadin (SUI).

Secret Garden Aerials World Cup - Team

• Just like last season, there will be only two Team events this season: one in Secret Garden (CHN) and the other in Lake Placid (USA) in January.

• The United States of America are the reigning Olympic champions in Team Aerials, with Ashley Caldwell, Christopher Lillis and Justin Schoenefeld winning the gold medal in Beijing 2022 ahead of the People’s Republic of China (Xu Mengtao, Jia Zongyang and Qi Guangpu) and Canada (Marion Thenault, Miha Fontaine and Lewis Irving).

• The People’s Republic of China won the last Team Aerials event held in Secret Garden, in the 2017/18 season, with Xu Mengtao, Qi Guangpu and Jia Zongyang. They took the race ahead of Australia (Samantha Wells, Danielle Scott and David Morris) and Russia (Liubov Nikitina, Ilia Burov and Maxim Burov).