Australian teenage sensation Indra Brown has secured back-to-back freeski halfpipe medals in her World Cup debut.
After claiming bronze last week in China, the 15-year-old went one better in the US, taking home silver at Copper Mountain in an impressive performance.
The youngest Australian to ever score a podium finish at a winter sports World Cup, Brown crashed on her second run while trying a new trick, after putting up a strong 80-point run on her opener.
Brown’s podium run included a leftside 900, rightside 900, leftside 720, switch rightside 540, switch leftside 720, and finished with an alley-oop, with grabs in all but one jump.
Brown in action during the women’s freeski halfpipe final. (Getty Images: Sean M. Haffey)
Great Britain’s Zoe Atkin won gold with 89.25 points, while China’s Kexin Chang claimed bronze on 77.50 points.
Brown now sits second in the World Cup standings with 140 points, trailing Atkin (180) and ahead of Chang (105).
Her next event will be the Calgary World Cup on January 3.
The Melbourne-based teen has appeared as a dark horse to medal at the Winter Olympics, which begins in February.
Brown spent five years in Canada as a child, where she picked up skiing.
“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,” she said last 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 halfpipe, I realised how much I enjoyed it, how much I excelled at a young age, and I just went from there.”