China has made its mark in the funky world of freestyle skiing by transforming several top gymnasts into acrobats on snow

hen Guo Dandan nailed her first front flip at the age of six, the pint-sized gymnast had no idea she would one day master a triple somersault with four twists. And on skis, to boot. Guo is a star in an upstart Chinese freestyle ski program that systematically plonked budding gymnasts on skis and pushed them to perform their acrobatic stunts on slopes instead of mats. "I realized that China had many good gymnasts who could be trained to be excellent freestyle skiers," says Wang Qingyuan of the Winter Sports Management Center in Beijing. Although some non-Chinese aerialists have had gymnastics training, no other country has recruited as aggressively from the ranks of young tumblers as China. The nationwide drive for flexible athletes has produced soaring results for China's women's team: tumblers-turned-aerialists Guo and Xu Nannan, both 20 years old, each rank in the top 10 in World Cup standings.

That the Chinese even took up this Mtv-generation sport is a puzzle. Unlike Japan and South Korea, China has never been a ski-crazed nation. Most Chinese ski slopes boast primitive rope tows and are beset by temperatures as low as -25C. And skiing is a sport of the wealthy, in which basic gear can cost $2,000, more than triple a typical Chinese worker's annual salary

In spite of it all, China plunged ahead with competitive freestyle skiing in 1990, assembling its first team in Harbin, the icy capital of Heilongjiang province. A perennial shortage of foreign exchange hobbled efforts to upgrade equipment, and even now the sometimes-unheated training facilities remain a shadow of the plush digs Westerners enjoy. But innovative, cost-saving measures have transformed the team. Two summers ago, for instance, the freestylers began sharing pool space with the nation's top divers in order to continue training year-round. One side benefit: the skiers learned new tumbling techniques from the diving crew.

No one has leapt into the limelight faster than Guo, who first struck gold as a rookie at the 1996 Asian Winter Games. Described as fearless by her coach Chen Hongbin, she has consistently placed in the top 10 internationally, taking a surprise second at the Breckenridge, Colo. World Cup event in January 1997 and capturing a Cup victory at Mt. Buller, Australia in August. Despite a recent flop in Piancavullo, Italy, Guo tosses out enough sass to distinguish herself in this flashy sport. "Competitors from other countries are watching for my new moves," Guo told Beijing's Science and Technology Daily. "I will only demonstrate them during the Olympic competition."

Xu may not share Guo's in-your-face style, but the ex-gymnast who scored a silver in the 1996 Asian Winter Games and was a 1997 World Cup medalist, also hopes to hear the Chinese anthem at Nagano. As does Ji Xiao'ou, 21, whose stellar stunts catapulted her onto center stage last month. Few cameras were trained on Ji in Mont Tremblant, Canada when the shy freestyler flawlessly landed a double back flip with a full twist, clinching a world-record points total and her first World Cup win.

For now, she's a one-hit wonder. "Ji showed she can jump phenomenally well," says Canadian national team head coach Peter Judge. "But she's had two concussions and that shows how hit and miss she's been." Unlike top aerialists Jacqui Cooper and Kirstie Marshall of Australia and Nikki Stone of the U.S., Ji lacks consistency. "This was the first time I've had success," she said after her surprise win in Canada. "I now have to make sure I can continue."

The freestylers also can play a role in improving China's drug-tainted image. Last month four swimmers flunked drug tests and another was caught trafficking steroids at the World Swimming Championship in Perth, Australia. Well aware of the cloud that hangs over China's athletes, ski officials insist that flexibility and technique-not big muscles-matter most in freestyle skiing. A drug-free flight toward freestlye gold would be something all China could flip over.