Warming up for cold reality

"You can get a good feel for where each team and athlete is at just because they are able to test every ability very quickly with these four drills."

As one of China's strongest snow sports teams, the freestyle aerials squad is carrying high hopes to snap up medals for the host in 2022. China's only Olympic gold medal on snow was won by men's skier Han Xiaopeng at the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy.

"I can tell you that being strong is a very important physical characteristic," said McBride. "To be able to handle the landing efficiently, aerial skiers need to be very flexible ...especially when they do their maneuvers as they climb the higher degrees of difficulty."

After a 50-day training program in Qinhuangdao and led by female world champion Xu Mengtao, China's aerials team has flown to Quebec, Canada, to move on to the water-jumping phase, which entails leaping off dry ramps to perform aerial tricks before landing in a pool.

"Right now, the water volume is very important so I have to make sure they are physically ready for that so they can improve their tricks by doing them repeatedly without getting hurt," said McBride.