INSIDE:
NEWS/STORIES/ARTICLES
Book Reviews
Columns/Opinion/Cartoon
Films
International
National
NW/Local
Recipes
Special A.C.E. Stories
Sports
Online Paper (PDF)
CLASSIFIED SECTION
Bids & Public Notices
NW Job Market
NW RESOURCE GUIDE
Consulates
Organizations
Scholarships
Special Sections
Asian Reporter Info
Contact Us
Subscription Info. & Back
Issues
FOLLOW US
Facebook
ASIA LINKS
Currency Exchange
Time Zones
More Asian Links
Copyright © 1990 - 2026
AR Home
Where EAST meets the Northwest
WORTH THE WAIT. Su Yiming of China competes during the men’s snowboarding slopestyle finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, on February 18, 2026. Su sat in the snow at the bottom of the snowboarding course, tears rolling down his cheeks. So close to winning China its first gold at the Milan Cortina Games, he still had a long wait to endure. Luckily for Su, one by one his rivals either fell or came up short of his winning score. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
From The Asian Reporter, V36, #3 (March 2, 2026), page 12.
Snowboarder Su Yiming delivers China’s first gold of Winter Olympics
By Joseph Wilson
The Associated Press
LIVIGNO, Italy — Su Yiming sat in the snow at the bottom of the snowboarding course, tears rolling down his cheeks. So close to winning China its first gold at the Milan Cortina Games, he still had a long wait to endure.
Luckily for Su, one by one his rivals either fell or came up short of his winning score.
Another Olympic medal for Su in the Italian Alps, another victory in an incredibly successful and still young career for the former child actor.
Su celebrated his 22nd birthday with a second career gold medal and fourth overall. He was the winner of an error-prone men’s slopestyle final, when he was the only one of the 12 finalists to complete his three runs through the course’s big rails and tightly bunched jumps without any falls or major errors.
"There’s no better gift for myself for my 22nd birthday," Su said. "I’m just really, truly proud of myself."
In the women’s slopestyle final, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott became the most decorated snowboarder in Olympic history with her fifth career medal after taking silver behind winner Mari Fukada of Japan.
For Su, the tension seemed almost too much after he failed to improve his best score of 82.41 points on his third run. Knowing that he had left the door open, he wiped his cheeks while watching seven opponents each take their final shot — and fail to better his mark.
"I just started realizing this is my last run of the Milan Olympics," Su said. "Then I started to realize today was my birthday, my parents are here to supporting me, and my coaches, everybody out here supporting me ... The emotions just came and I just can’t help to stop crying."
Moments later, those turned to tears of joy when he stepped onto the top spot on the podium.
Su burst onto the Olympic stage when he won gold in big air and silver in slopestyle at the Beijing 2022 Games. He then took two years off to recover from what he called fatigue. Then came recurrent ankle injuries that required him to compete with painkillers to get back into form for these games.
He took bronze in big air in Livigno as a prelude to his slopestyle gold.
In Su’s words, "It’s all paid off."
Mari Fukada
In the women’s slopestyle final, the 19-year-old Fukada proved unbeatable with a score of 87.83 while fellow Japanese rider Kokomo Murase took bronze.
That brought Japan’s massive medal haul at the Livigno snowboarding park to nine, as of February 18, including four golds. Murase added the bronze to her gold in big air.
"I still can’t believe it," Fukada said after her victorious Olympic debut.
Sadowski-Synnott sets "insane" record with 5th medal
Sadowski-Synnott was off the podium when she dropped in for the final’s last run and pulled off a big score to grab her record-setting silver.
The 24-year-old New Zealander also won silver in big air at these games, adding to a big air bronze in 2018 and big air silver in 2022. Four years ago in Beijing she became the first Kiwi to win a gold medal at a Winter Games when she triumphed in women’s slopestyle.
On hearing of her milestone, she said, "It feels pretty insane, to be honest."
* * *
Read the current issue of The Asian Reporter in its entirety!
Go to <www.asianreporter.com/completepaper.htm>!