Finishing on a high

A disappointed Li was all tears after the narrow defeat, but the 22-year-old Asian Winter Games winner remained upbeat that her best has yet to come.

"It's been a great season for me, and I really had a legitimate shot at gold in the final here," said Li, who also added a silver in superpipe at the X Games in January and a World Cup gold in Calgary, Canada last month to her 2025 season collection.

"I got carried away by the pressure, but I know where I have to go, though. I have to improve the quality of my grabs and my mental stability," said Li, who finished fifth on her Olympic debut at Beijing 2022.

Sunday's battle between Atkin and Li was a fitting end to a season in which they shared the Crystal Globe last month, after both finishing with one win, two runner-ups and a fifth-place finish apiece to tie for the season trophy for the first time in FIS history.

Notably, four of the 10 women who started the final are Chinese, backing up the country's collective strength in the pipe discipline, even with the reigning Olympic champion Gu watching from home.

Also capping off the worlds' final day on podium was China's veteran aerials skier and defending Olympic champion Xu Mengtao, who settled with a silver, after young American skier Kaila Kuhn snatched the gold.

A flawed landing on her final run cost Xu a chance of adding a second worlds title to her glittering resume, following her first in 2013, as she scored 99.16 points after completing a back full-full-full — three full rotations with spins in the air — but landing on her back.

Kuhn, who hadn't finished on a podium over the World Cup season, emerged strongly when it mattered the most, with a 105.13-point effort on her final run, which made her the only female to crack the 100-point mark at the worlds this year.