Su Yiming (Chinese: 苏翊鸣; pinyin: Sū Yìmíng; born 18 February 2004) is a Chinese snowboarder, an Olympic champion and former child actor.[1] By winning the 2021–22 FIS Snowboard World Cup Big Air event at Steamboat Ski Resort on 4 December 2021, he became the first Chinese snowboarder to take a World Cup podium position.[2]
Su is recognized as the first snowboarder to complete and land the 1980-degree aerial spin successfully.
2022 Winter Olympics
He competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics and was the only competitor to achieve an 1800-degree aerial in the men's slopestyle event, winning a silver medal,[3] making him the second Chinese athlete after Liu Jiayu to win an Olympic medal in snowboarding. The silver was controversial however, as confounded fans said Su was "robbed" by the low judging scores in spite of his unprecedented performances, and also due to the judges missing a glaring error made by gold medalist Max Parrot of Canada after judges fail to see him grab his knee rather than his board during the men's slopestyle final.[4] British expert Ed Leigh wrote in the BBC, "The judges have put execution at such a premium that something like that should have cost him two or three points. So the gold has gone wrong there. ... I think Su Yiming actually took the gold there. This is a mistake on the judges' part."[5][4][6][7] Iztok Sumatic, chief judge at the Olympics, admitted that judges failed to pick up on the mistake by Parrot in his second run due to not being given the camera angles of viewers. He also likened it to Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" refereeing mistake.[8] Sumatic also said that after the event he received a call from Su, who said that he respected the judging and was happy with the competition result regardless.[9] However, Parrot acknowledged the error but still felt like he had the most technical run and deserved his gold medal.[10]
At the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Su was the only competitor to achieve an 1800-degree aerial in the men's slopestyle event, winning a silver medal,[3] making him the second Chinese athlete after Liu Jiayu to win an Olympic medal in snowboarding.
A week following the slopestyle event, Su won the gold medal in the Big Air event with a score of 182.50 by completing a front-side 1800 and a back-side triple-cork 1800 in his first and second runs respectively, and edging out Mons Røisland who won silver while Max Parrot grabbed the bronze medal.[11] In doing so, 17-year-old Su became the first Chinese to win a gold medal in this event and celebrated his 18th birthday four days later.[12][13][14][15]
^Browne, Ken (17 February 2022). "Su Yiming exclusive: "I'm dreaming, I'm crying like a little kid, I feel so much love"". International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 13 March 2022. Snowboard Olympic champion Su Yiming speaks to Olympics.com about a "dream come true" at Beijing 2022, lifelong friend Ailing (Eileen) Gu, his idol Mark McMorris, and how "it's all about the love." Happy birthday Su!
^STEBBINGS, Peter. "Move Aside Gu, Here Comes Su -- Teenager Wins 'Insane' Games Gold". www.barrons.com. Retrieved 14 March 2022. "This feels insane, it's something I've never experienced before... I can't believe I got this gold," said Su, for whom this was an early birthday present -- he turns 18 on Friday... Su even managed -- for a time at least -- to upstage Californian-born Gu, his Chinese teammate and the unofficial face of the Games.
