Qi Guangpu of China celebrates after his run during freestyle skiing men's aerials final at Beijing Olympics at Genting Snow Park, Zhangjiakou, China, Feb 16, 2022. [Photo by Wei Xiaohao/chinadaily.com.cn]

A two-time world champion and winner of 13 World Cup titles, aerial specialist Qi Guangpu finally won the coveted medal by landing perhaps the biggest jump of his career in the final's medal round to win an individual gold in the daredevils' event, which involves skiers launching themselves off a steep jump to perform multi-flip stunts before trying to land cleanly on a ramp.

The gold was Qi's second medal following a silver he won with teammates Xu Mengtao and Jia Zongyang in the mixed team final on Feb 10, and the host delegation's 13th medal at Beijing 2022. China ranked fourth on the Games medal rankings with seven gold, four silver and two bronze by the end of Wednesday's competitions.

Entering the medal round with confidence built upon two clean qualification jumps, Qi overcame his nerves to perform a quintuple-twisting triple back flip in a neat fashion, which got him the top score of 129 points. 

Gold medallist Qi Guangpu of China celebrates on the podium during the flower ceremony. [Photo by Wei Xiaohao/chinadaily.com.cn]

"Every trick in this competition is very important and very impressive. I did my best. During the competition, almost every competitor did their best, so every trick was very wonderful," he said.

Abramenko, who won Ukraine's first medal in Beijing, was proud of being able to finish on the podium at back-to-back Games.

"It was an amazing competition today. I'm so happy for this silver and really proud of myself that I've won the first medal for Ukraine at these Games," said the 33-year-old fifth-time Olympian.

"I'm really happy that I made my quintuple twists, although the landing was not really good, but enough for second place."

At 31 years, 119 days, Qi became the oldest Olympic gold medalist in the men's freeski aerials event, winning China's 16th medal in freestyle skiing since the country's Winter Olympic debut in 1980 in the United States.

With three gold medals so far in Beijing, including the women's Big Air won by teenage prodigy Gu Ailing, China leads in the gold medal tally at Beijing 2022 in freestyle skiing.