More snowboard and freestyle skiing events were held than ever before during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, and new records were made as young stars emerged and legends showed they shouldn't be discounted just yet.

In all, 20 events were held in the two sports at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, north China – including slopestyle and halfpipe, snowboard and ski cross, snowboard giant parallel slalom and moguls and aerials – while four big air events took place at the Shougang venue in Beijing.

The newer of the Winter Olympic disciplines – freestyle skiing was only introduced in 1992 and snowboarding in 1998 – have rapidly established themselves as crowd-pleasers, with a more youthful and diverse vibe than more traditional sports.

And they provided two of the biggest stars of these Games in Gu Ailing and Su Yiming of Team China.

Read more: China's Gu claims gold in women's freeski halfpipe at Beijing 2022

Gu, aged just 18, became the first athlete to win a medal in three different freestyle skiing events at the Olympics, taking gold in big air and halfpipe, and silver in slopestyle.

Seventeen-year-old Su, who only really made his World Cup debut in December, proved the buzz about him was justified when he won silver in snowboard slopestyle and gold in big air, beating rivals with far more experience.

Team China also scored big in aerials, with Xu Mengtao and Qi Guangpu taking the country's first ever Olympic gold medals in the sport, on top of silver in the mixed team competition with Jia Zongyang.

The contrast between new prodigies like Su and Gu, and veterans like Xu, Qi and Jia, could be seen throughout the snowboard and freestyle skiing fields.

Team USA's Chloe Kim, 21, defended her snowboard halfpipe Olympic title, having won every halfpipe event she entered since 2018, including two at world championships.

Ayumu Hirano of Japan won gold in the same event on the men's side, making it his third Olympic medal after silver in 2014 and 2018, aged only 23.

At the other end of the spectrum, 36-year-old Lindsey Jacobellis of Team USA, was finally crowned Olympic champion in snowboard cross, 16 years after a fall cost her gold at the 2006 Turin Games. Jacobellis and Nick Baumgartner, 40, then crushed the competition in the mixed team event, despite being the oldest athletes in the running.

"Don't count the old girl out," Jacobellis, a five-time world champion, joked afterward.

Read more: 'Oldies' Jacobellis, Baumgartner win Olympic gold in snowboard cross mixed team debut

Days earlier, Benjamin Karl of Austria, also 36, had become the oldest snowboard gold medalist at the Olympics by winning the men's parallel giant slalom, completing his set of medals.  

While veterans showed they could still compete with the best, one legend bid an emotional farewell to the sport he helped popularize. Snowboarder Shaun White of Team USA just missed out on a fourth Olympic halfpipe medal to go with his three golds but received an ovation after his last race and could not hold back tears.

"I'm so proud of the last two decades of wins, losses, ups, downs, blood, sweat, tears and everything in between because they have made me who I am today ... This has been the ride of my life," he tweeted later.

Among the other highlights at these Beijing 2022 Games were Zoi Synnott-Sadowski winning New Zealand's first ever gold medal at Winter Olympics – in snowboard slopestyle – with compatriot Nico Porteous soon doubling the tally in freeski halfpipe.

Czech wonder Ester Ledecka again attempted the mad double she had achieved at PyeongChang in 2018 when she won gold in both the snowboard parallel giant slalom and alpine skiing super-G, an exceptional feat. She had to settle for fifth in the super-G this time but defended her snowboard title, firmly anchoring her name in the history books.

Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland won freeski big air bronze on her 22nd birthday and went on to claim slopestyle gold to complete her Olympic set. And Kaishu Hirano, Ayumu's little brother, set a world record when he performed a trick while rising a whopping 7.5 meters above the edge of the halfpipe during the men's competition.  

Four new events were held for the first time at these Winter Games: women's and men's freeski big air, mixed team aerials and mixed team snowboard cross. Gu Ailing, Birk Ruud of Norway, Team China, and Jacobellis and Baumgartner thus made history as the first Olympic champions in these events.

But besides the medals and records, what will also stand out is snowboarders' and freeskiers' attitude to their sport and their insistence that it's not about the results, but about having fun and developing new tricks.

When Reira Iwabuchi of Japan attempted a triple cork in the women's snowboard big air final, "we were freaking out," noted Austrian Anna Gasser.

Iwabuchi didn't land the trick, and Gasser went on to win her second gold in the event, but "even though maybe that meant I wouldn't be on top of the podium ... I wish she landed it," said the Austrian. "She didn't look at how much more points she needed for the podium. She just wanted to progress the sport ... I just have so much respect for her."

Norwegian freeski big air gold medalist Ruud echoed this sentiment, summarizing what many other athletes also felt: "The free skiing environment is the best environment out there. We are friends, we are competitors, but we are there for the sport and to have fun."