Aerials, Men

Two Canadians were among the favorites, with Steve Omischl having won the 2005 World Champion, and Kyle Nissen leading the World Cup standings in the 2005-06 season. But Omischl bombed out in the qualifying and Nissen qualifed only seventh, as China’s Han Xiaopeng, a former acrobat, led the qualifying round over Belarussian Dmitry Dashchinsky, although Han had never won a World Cup event. Dashchinsky took a narrow lead over Han in the first round of the final, with Nissen still struggling, placing eighth. Nissen had the best jump in the second round of the final with his back-full double-full-full, but his poor first jump kept him only in fifth place. Han placed fourth in the second round with Dashchinsky fifth, but Han was able to edge ahead of the Belarussian and win the gold medal, with the bronze going to Russian Vladimir Lebedev. This was a major surprise to Dashchinsky. When he landed his final jump, he and the crowd thought he had won, and he was waving a Belarussian flag in triumph, until his score was announced. In 2007, Han won the World Championships, but thru 2009, had still not won a World Cup event. With his gold medal, he became the first Chinese man to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics.