Aerials Grand Prix heads to Qinhuangdao for two-day finale

The 2026 FIS Freestyle Aerials Grand Prix is set to conclude this weekend, with the tour heading to Qinhuangdao (CHN) for two days of competition on 19-20 September.

Following the opening event in Mettmenstetten (SUI) in August, the Grand Prix now moves to China for its second and final stop of the summer, with back-to-back individual competitions set to bring this year’s series to a close.

Qinhuangdao has become an important hub for aerials in China. The National Sports Administration Qinhuangdao Training Base is one of the country’s key summer training centres for the discipline, with the Chinese national team and provincial teams regularly using its water-ramp facilities for their preparations.

The venue is once again ready to welcome an international field for the Grand Prix, continuing its role as a regular meeting point for aerialists during the summer training period.

The opening competition in Mettmenstetten saw Marion Thénault (CAN) and Li Xinpeng (CHN) take the first victories of the 2026 Grand Prix season.

Thénault stepped things up in the super final with a Lay-double Full-Full, scoring 120.80 points to claim the women’s victory ahead of Yang Xinyi (CHN) and Anhelina Brykina (UKR).

On the men’s side, Li produced one of the standout jumps of the competition, landing a Full-triple Full-Full for 134.16 points. Noé Roth (SUI) finished second, while Stsiapan Zelianko (AIN) completed the podium as all three men in the super final put down Full-triple Full-Fulls.

Those results put Thénault and Li on top of the respective Grand Prix standings after the opening competition, but with two more events still to come in Qinhuangdao, there are plenty of points still available before the 2026 Grand Prix champions are decided.

The competition programme will follow the same schedule on both Saturday and Sunday, with women’s qualifications starting at 08:45 local time, followed by the men’s qualifications at 10:40. Finals are scheduled to get underway at 14:00 local time on both days.

Live streaming will be available from Qinhuangdao for both Saturday and Sunday competitions. Fans can follow the action via the main livestream, with additional streams available via Alternative 1 and Alternative 2.

With two competitions in two days, Qinhuangdao will provide one final opportunity for the world’s aerialists to test their summer progress in a competition setting before attention turns towards the upcoming 2026/27 winter season.