China's Olympic snowboard history was made when Liu Jiayu won a silver medal in the women's halfpipe during the 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Phoenix Snow Park in PyeongChang, South Korea.

After maintaining a leading position in qualifying runs, Liu stormed to win the second prize in the women's halfpipe on February 13, 2008. It was Team China's first medal at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and made the 25-year-old the first Chinese snowboard Olympic medalist.

"It's time to celebrate. This sport in China is going to grow. For Chinese people having someone on the podium for the Olympics is an honor. It will be a huge push for Chinese snowboard," Xinhua quoted Liu as saying after the event.

"I did not think much about the finals, just do my best to enjoy it," Liu said. "Snowboarding is a cool sport. When you ride on the board, you feel the world belongs to you."

Liu finished fourth at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and ninth at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, but she underwent surgery before both competitions. 

"In 2010 in Vancouver I dislocated my shoulder at that time and I only got the fourth place. That was the first time I competed in Olympics," Liu said.

"I just took the result and worked harder in snowboard. In 2014, unfortunately, my other shoulder was dislocated," she added.

"Actually, that was a period of time when I gained a lot. I can see clearly what my goal is, just enjoying that feeling. The result is important, but not that important anymore," Liu recalled of her recovery period.

Before setting her eyes on a snowboarding adventure, Liu had deep roots in martial arts.

"My grandma took me to learn martial arts at sports schools since I was little. Knives, swords, spears, halberds, I've worked with all of those weapons," she said in an interview with Xinhua in 2009.

Liu started training as a professional snowboarder in 2003 and was selected for a Canada-based winter camp in 2005, a project funded by China's General Administration of Sport's Winter Sports Management Center to foster Chinese athletes in winter sports.

Her talent started to shine through in the halfpipe event, earning the honorary nickname "Birdie" from her instructor Ben Wainwright at that time.

"She goes big, really big in the halfpipe. She rides her board so well up the transition and letting all of that energy get transferred up in the air, which is very rare in girls' snowboarding," AP quoted Wainwright as saying in 2010.

Confident and energetic, Liu landed her first national championship title in 2005 at the age of 13.

Her power continued to grow with a bronze medal at the 2007 Winter Asian Games held in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province.

Liu's first World Cup victory was in Canada in 2008, and her first International Ski Federation (FIS) World Championships title followed a year later in Gangwon, South Korea.

Also in 2009, she won gold at the Winter Universiade held in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

Two years later, a bronze medal was the reward for her fabulous skills in the 2011 FIS World Championships in La Molina, Spain.

Besides Olympic and FIS events, Liu has competed as a top-tier snowboarder at extreme sports in the U.S. –  including at X Games, Dew Tour, and the Park City Grand Prix.

Liu took top spot at Park City Grand Prix in 2013.

In the X Games SuperPipe event, she finished fourth in 2016 and 2019, fifth in 2017 and sixth in 2018.

At Dew Tour, Liu kept worries and burdens off her mind with the goal of just having fun.

"It was awesome. This was my first time in Dew Tour finals, and then I won!" she said of her adventure at the Dew Tour event back in 2015.

"It's snowboarding – just go for it, have fun!"