Su Yiming, who made history for China by winning the snowboard men's slopestyle silver and the snowboard men's big air gold medal at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, celebrated his 18th birthday on Friday.

"Now I can sit at the adult table," Su said in an interview with the website ccdi.gov.cn.

Su said his birthday wish came true when he won the big air gold. "I had been hoping to win a Winter Olympic gold before turning 18 for years as the most precious gift for my birthday," he added.

Su chose and completed a frontside 1800 tailgrab in his first run in the big air final on Tuesday, but he said it was not part of the plan he made before the competition – because he hadn't made any special plans.

"I assumed that all athletes would do two of their most difficult tricks in the final so there couldn't be simple and conservative tricks. So what I needed to do was to make the best performance with my two tricks. That's what it takes to win a title," Su said.

Su revealed that he was impressed by the courses for the slopestyle and big air competitions, especially the features of "Great Wall" made of snow like beacon and corner towers. "Courses like these could give athletes more inspirations and encouraged them to realize their ideas in competitions," Su said.

Su was spotted hugging his coach and crying hard after winning the big air gold. "I said 'I did it' back then. It has always been a big dream of me and my coach Sato (Yasuhiro) to win the gold at the 2022 Winter Olympics," Su said. "We have been thinking about it every day for the past four years. Only we know how much we have done and sacrificed for the title, how many difficulties we had to overcome in order to refine my tricks. That's why when I finally won the gold, he's the first one I want to share my joy with. I was so excited. I did it. We both did it."

Su began snowboarding when he was four years old. His first snowboard came from his father and it was a lot taller than Su was back then. However, Su almost fell in love with the sport immediately.

"I only have one word to describe my feelings for snowboarding, it's love, deep from my heart," Su said. "It's my happiest moment when I stand on the snowboard. No matter how long I train, even for seven or eight hours in a row, joy to me. The only difference between a professional and an amateur is that I must invest more time and efforts in doing what I love. Love is what has been supporting me all the time."

"I want to tell teenage snowboarders, the most important thing is to chase your love," Su added. "But you must do it step by step when you try new tricks and make progress when you are completely safe. That's how you enjoy the fun of snowboarding."