Indra Brown has once again proved that no stage is too big for her burgeoning talent, winning a superb silver medal on her X-Games debut in the Aspen superpipe.
Fresh off being named for her first Winter Olympics team for Milan Cortina, the 15-year-old showed the world her meteoric rise on the World Cup circuit has been no fluke, firmly putting herself in medal contention in Milan next month.
"I feel like she's just building momentum, building confidence," two-time freestyle skiing X-Games gold medallist Maggie Voisin said in commentary.
"She's like, I have three World Cup podiums, I now have an X-Games podium. Why not an Olympic medal?"
Australia's chef de mission Alissa Camplin-Warner said she did not want Brown to put too much pressure on herself at these Olympics when she announced the squad on Friday in Melbourne.
"What I hope is that she can just be open to the whole experience, enjoy it and not heap too much pressure on herself," Camplin-Warner said.
But her performances have been such that there will doubtless be a clamour for the youngster when shen takes to the slopes.
Despite the tricky conditions, with heavy snow slowing the pipe, the Melbourne teen opened up the competition with a hugely impressive score of 80.00 that put her in fourth place after round one.
Despite being the youngest competitor at this year's X-Games, Brown typically showed no nerves at the world's foremost extreme sport showcase.
Brown delighted the crowd with flawless back-to-back 900s, following up with a 720, back-to-back switch 360s and a big alley-oop to finish.
But in the second round, she improved, getting more amplitude up the side of the pipe to score a superb 88.33 that thrust her into provisional second place.
With the order shuffled on the final run, Brown went from leading the field off to going last.
But even with that spotlight on her Brown continued to excel, improving her score to 90.00.
Unfortunately she was never able to challenge Britain's Zoe Atkin, who was simply a cut above the rest.
The British skier — the reigning world champion and among the favourites for gold at the Livigno Ski Park in February — improved with each of her three runs to claim gold, with a stunning score of 94.66.
Last year's winner, Canada's Cassie Sharpe, claimed bronze at 33 years of age — more than double Brown's age.
Earlier, Australian Tess Coady secured fourth in the women's snowboard slopestyle event.
Britain's Mia Brookes claimed gold with a 96.33 on her second run, with New Zealand's Zoi Sadowski-Synnott leaping into the medals with a 93.00 with her third and final run.
Coady, who won silver in the 2023 X-Games, improved with her final run, but it was not enough to overhaul the 89.66 of Japan's Kokomo Murase.
Olympic slopestyle bronze medallist from Beijing, Coady will compete in both slopestyle and big air at the Milan Cortina Games next month.
