Source : ABC NEWS
Australian teenage sensation Indra Brown has wasted no time in earning her first FIS World Cup medal, winning bronze in the freeski half-pipe at the Secret Garden Resort in China.
In what was her first ever World Cup start, the 15-year-old finished behind reigning world champion Zoe Atkin and defending Olympic champion Gu Ailing.
Brown’s inexperience told a little on the podium — she needed Gu to help her spray the champagne.
The Melbourne teen may need to get used to spending time amongst such lofty company though, having announced herself as a dark horse for the Winter Olympic Games, which get underway in 55 days time.
Ineligible to compete in World Cup events last year on account of her age, Brown may have struggled with the celebratory aspect of her day, but she looked more than comfortable amongst the elite women on the half-pipe in the sport in misty, windy conditions.
Her third place is the best ever result for an Australian on World Cup debut, beating the record of two-time Olympic medallist Torah Bright’s fourth place in Valle Nevado in Chile in September 2003.
Bright podiumed at the next event that year in Whistler in December 2003, aged 16 years 11 months, a full 12 months older than Brown, who is the youngest Australian winter sports athlete to win a World Cup medal.
Indra Brown qualified fourth for the final in comfortable conditions. (Supplied: FIS Park & Pipe)
Qualifying in fourth spot on Thursday, Brown scored 82.00 for her first run down the 2022 Olympic half-pipe in the resort of Zhangjiakou, the third-highest of anyone behind America-born pair Atkin and Gu.
Atkin’s 90.25 set the pace, with Gu — who won gold on this half-pipe in 2022 — in second with a score of 85.25.
However, the Chinese skier rose to the occasion with her second run, narrowly overhauling her British rival with a score of 91.75.
Conditions in Zhangjiakou were windy and misty on competition day. (Supplied: FIS TV)
But while 22-year-olds Gu and Atkin would expect to be at the pointy end of World Cup competitions, the experience is a new one for Brown.
Brown caught the skiing bug when living in Canada for five years as a child.
“That was the thing all winter, seven months long. The only thing you really could do is go up to your local ski hill and join a club or just ski around with your family,” Brown told Nine earlier this week.
“I joined a local ski hill club [in Canada] and they would do some mountains, some park and when I started getting into the terrain park, the half-pipe, I realised how much I enjoyed it, how much I excelled at a young age and I just went from there.”
