Xu Mengtao ( Chinese 徐梦 桃 , Pinyin Xú Mèngtáo , born July 12, 1990 in Jilin ) is a Chinese freestyle skier . She specializes in the aerials (jumping) discipline. Her greatest success so far is winning the overall Freestyle World Cup in the 2012/13 season. There are also four victories in discipline rankings, the 2013 world championship title and three other world championship medals.
Xu made his debut in the Freestyle Skiing World Cup on December 9, 2006 , jumping to seventh place in Jilin . One day later she was third on the podium for the first time. After winning the silver medal at the 2007 Asian Winter Games in Changchun, the 2006/07 season ended with the gold medal at the Junior World Championships in Airolo .
During the entire winter of 2007/08, Xu was sidelined due to an injury. She then had a successful comeback and celebrated her first World Cup victory on February 14, 2009 in Moscow . Three weeks later she won the silver medal behind Li Nina at the 2009 World Championships in Inawashiro . In the 2009/10 season she was on the podium three times (including a win) and was therefore one of the favorites to win a medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics . In Whistler she was leading after the first round, but fell back to sixth place in the second round.
After Xu had won two more World Cup competitions in the 2010/11 season , she won the silver medal again at the 2011 World Championships in Deer Valley , this time behind Cheng Shuang . In the 2011/12 season , Xu proved to be superior. She won five out of nine World Cup competitions, plus two second places. With this she won the Aerials discipline ranking by a large margin and finished second in the overall World Cup. In the 2012/13 World Cup season , too , she barely gave the competition a chance: of the six competitions that were held, she won five, and once she was third. She deliberately won the Aerials discipline ranking as well as the overall World Cup. She won the gold medal
at the 2013 World Championships in Voss
In the 2013/14 World Cup season , Xu took third place on the podium twice. She won the silver medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi . At the beginning of winter 2014/15 she won two World Cup competitions, but then had a pretty mixed season. At the season highlight, the 2015 World Championships on Kreischberg , she missed the win by less than two points and thus won the bronze medal. The following season 2015/16 she broke off after the second World Cup competition. Her comeback in the 2016/17 season was successful: she won two World Cup competitions, came second twice and third twice. This is the third time that she has won the Aerials discipline.
In the 2017/18 World Cup , Xu was again the best in her discipline. She won twice and came second twice, the worst result being fifth. On the other hand, she did not live up to her role as favorite at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang : She fell in the last round of the finals and came ninth. In the 2018/19 World Cup , she won the discipline for the fifth time with three wins and a third place. At the 2019 World Championships in Park City , she won silver in the team and bronze in the individual competition.
People's Republic of China
