Winter Olympics<\/a> were held in Beijing four years ago. Now she is launching out of them, landing her favourite trick \u2013 a cork 900, or \u201ctwo-and-a-half spins and a flip while grabbing my skis\u201d \u2013 and is among the favourites for a freeski halfpipe Olympic medal just days after turning 16.<\/p>\nBrown burst onto the scene last December and quickly collected three medals in her first three World Cup events including gold on familiar terrain in Calgary. She will head to Milano Cortina as No 1 in the women\u2019s World Cup rankings, and the youngest member of the 53-strong Australian team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to go there with a position I want, or a medal I want,\u201d Indra says. \u201cI just want to go there and do my best and be really proud of what I\u2019ve done. This is my first Olympics and I\u2019m only 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I can just go and be stoked with what I\u2019ve done, that\u2019s a medal in itself. I came into this season just wanting to land some of my runs and just be proud of how I was skiing and I\u2019ve definitely been doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown placed third in the women’s freeski halfpipe at US Grand Prix 2025 in December. Photograph: Maddie Meyer\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Speaking with Brown, sitting alongside her mother Anne, in the week before the opening ceremony on 6 February, it is hard to imagine her being overawed by the occasion of the Olympics. Brown is at ease with the sudden attention that is coming her way, perhaps helped by her father\u2019s own 15 minutes of fame late last year.<\/p>\n
Grant was dubbed \u201cCaptain Underpants\u201d by neighbours after being awoken in the middle of the night and chasing down a pair of teenagers who had allegedly broken into the family\u2019s Melbourne home. Indra was travelling back from a competition in New Zealand at the time but was soon shown the news stories and says it was \u201cfunny to watch from the background\u201d.<\/p>\n
The skiing phenom is now fine-tuning her runs and filling up her bag of tricks away from the spotlight at a training camp in Austria. A couple of weeks ago she was collecting more silverware at the prestigious X-Games in Aspen. She landed back-to-back 900s on her final run to finish second ahead of defending X-Games champion and two-time Olympic medallist Cassie Sharpe.<\/p>\n
Brown (right) with bronze medallist Cassie Sharpe and gold medallist Zoe Atkin at January\u2019s X Games in Aspen. Photograph: Jamie Squire\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s reigning Olympic moguls champion Jakara Anthony and two-time snowboard halfpipe medallist Scotty James are among the athletes Brown looks up to and hopes to meet in the village in the coming weeks. But it was Sharpe who helped her first glide into the pipe.<\/p>\n
The Canadian won silver at Beijing 2022, falling narrowly short of defending the freeski halfpipe Olympic crown she claimed in Pyeongchang, not long before returning home to Calgary to coach some \u201cgroms\u201d at the local ski hill. Brown and her family were living in the city at the time, and Anne has since had a laugh with Sharpe over a future rival being among the \u201chundreds of kids\u201d at the spring ski camp. <\/p>\n
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Anne and Grant stirred up an adventurous spirit in their four children from a young age with regular trips to the mountains for \u201chiking and biking\u201d. Indra started skiing at the age of three during the family\u2019s annual holidays at Mount Hotham in Victoria before their temporary, five-year move to Canada.<\/p>\n
Indra says it is \u201cpretty cool\u201d to now be sharing snow parks, pipes and podiums with skiers she grew up idolising. But her younger brother, James, remains her toughest competition. \u201cHe loves to push me,\u201d she says. \u201cIf he\u2019s doing a trick, I want to be able to do it as well. We have such a good time just battling off each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown\u2019s rise has been nothing short of meteoric. Photograph: Lintao Zhang\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Anne can\u2019t recall a moment when she realised that Indra was overtaking her and Grant with her skills on the slopes, though she concedes with a smile that \u201cmy skis don\u2019t leave the snow, so it wasn\u2019t hard\u201d. The family juggling act with Anne often being on the road with two children and travelling to ski competitions can be draining. But she is \u2013 mostly \u2013 grateful for the opportunity to watch up close as Indra fulfils her dreams, whether they are as lofty as competing in the Olympics or simply landing a new trick.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do get nervous,\u201d Anne says. \u201cI think whenever you see your kids compete in any sport or any activity, you\u2019re a little bit nervous for them. I sort of trust in the process, really trust in what Indra and her coach are doing together, the practice and time they\u2019ve put in, and their attention to detail for each of the tricks. I am relieved when she gets to the bottom though.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Indra, time on the snow is anything but daunting. Even when standing at the top of the halfpipe that will be more than seven metres high when the Olympic event is held in Livigno, a few deep breaths, visualising the run and tricks, and a \u201cquick pep talk\u201d to herself are enough to send her on her way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just love the feeling of flying and the airtime you get, landing high on the wall and just the effortless feeling,\u201d she says. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t even feel like you take off, then there\u2019s just freedom to express yourself however you want. There\u2019s no right or wrong way, so I just love that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An overnight success tends to be built on years of patience and perseverance. Teenage ski sensation Indra Brown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-268910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}