Gu Ailing attends the women's freeski halfpipe qualifications on Thursday. Photo; Cui Meng/GT

93.75, 95.50! As the only athlete to score more than 90 points in both rounds at the women's freeski halfpipe qualifications on Thursday, Team China's Gu Ailing easily booked her place in the finals.

The talented 18-year-old skier appeared very relaxed at the event. 

"I am full of energy again after I got up today, and I feel very good. I just went to play and enjoy, and I am very satisfied with my performance today," Gu told CCTV after the event.

Gu's grandmother attended the event on Thursday. Prior to the event, Gu had mentioned her grandmother's plans, noting that it made her feel very excited and increased her determination to perform well. 

"She's never watched me compete before, so I'm pretty excited. She's always saying, 'Be safe, be safe, be safe.' That's her biggest thing. I think she'll be proud of me no matter what, and for that I'm forever grateful, but of course I want to do my best and I want to be able to share that with her."

Gu earned the highest score of 93.75 in the first round, and set a personal record by earning an even higher score of 95.50 during the second round.

"I'm very happy to see the score of 95.5... And I'm very happy to get a place in the finals. A few days ago, I also ate a brown sugar cake in Beijing, it was very yummy," she said, adding that the playing field was great and that her speed was relatively fast. 

"A few days ago, I was still quite tired, because there were still slope competitions, and I did not have much time for training. Yesterday's training was not particularly good. From the opening ceremony to now, I basically have training or competitions every day," she noted.

Many Chinese netizens took to social media, calling her performance "the high point of the event."

Commenting on the flood of compliments, Gu responded that "I'm very happy that many people support me, and I hope more people like skiing."'

Besides Gu, Chinese athletes Zhang Kexin and Li Fanghui also qualified for the finals by ranking at the 5th and 8th place respectively.

The women's freeski halfpipe final is expected to be held on Friday morning. Gu is a favorite to take home the gold for the event, which will be her final competition at Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.