Han hands China their first skiing gold medal

Published on Friday 24 February 2006 00:39

HAN Xiaopeng yesterday became China's first Olympic gold medallist in freestyle skiing when he won the men's aerials on the penultimate jump at the Turin Games.

Dmitri Dashinski, of Belarus, took the silver medal and Vladimir Lebedev, of Russia, was a surprise winner of the bronze after coming in as only the 30th-ranked aerialist in the world.

As promised, Jeret "Speedy" Peterson tried his trademark trick - the Hurricane - on the aerials course, but a bobble on the landing thwarted him. The American finished seventh on a night when the world's best simply weren't making mistakes.

It was perfectionists like Han and Dashinski who seized the day, not revolutionaries like Peterson. Han earned 130.53 points on his final jump to put him first with 250.77, and Dashinski just couldn't match him.

"I never thought this would happen - I'm overjoyed with such a win," said Han afterwards. "I feel like I'm in a dream. I was so happy to win the first gold medal for the Chinese team in the history on the snow."

Peterson tried the hardest trick in the sport, a triple somersault with five twists, three of which are crammed into the middle flip. It's so difficult that Peterson can only remember landing it four times since he started doing it about a year ago.

Regrets? He had none.

"It was very hard," he said. "It was the hardest jump ever tried in competition and I'm very glad I threw it in the Olympics. I said I'd be first or 12th and I ended up somewhere in the middle. That's what it's all about."