Fifteen-year-old rookie Indra Brown and comeback kid Valentino Guseli have given Australia a timely golden double with impressive World Cup victories as the Winter Olympics loom large.
Brown maintained her dramatic progression in her first three World Cup career starts, following a bronze medal at Secret Garden in China and silver at Copper Mountain in the US, as Saturday’s freeski halfpipe victory in Calgary, Canada, made her the youngest Australian to win a World Cup event.
Already an established star, Guseli, 20, followed up in the same location hours later by convincingly winning the gold medal in just his second World Cup snowboard halfpipe event since a serious knee injury in December 2024.
Amazingly, Melburnian Brown now leads her World Cup standings halfway through the season with 240 points, 55 clear of China’s Zhang Kexin.
‘I’m really excited and happy to be here, and excited for more,’ Brown said.
Yet to be confirmed on Australia’s Winter Olympics team for Italy in February, that appears a mere formality for Brown following the penultimate event before the Games.
Pictured: Indra Brown celebrates her World Cup win in Calgary, Canada after taking out the freeski halfpipe event
The 15-year-old will now go into the Winter Olympics in Italy full of confidence
Final selections will be decided at the Aspen Snowmass World Cup event from January 8-10.
Brown took an early lead with a first-run score of 85.20 that no one else was able to match.
Zhang took the silver, one point behind on 84.20, with American Svea Irving getting bronze with 83.20, as last season’s overall winner Li Fanghui had to settle for fourth place.
With her victory, Brown matched an FIS Freeski World Cup mark set by Sweden’s Jennie-Lee Burmansson in the 2017-18 season, when the then-15-year-old rattled off a second, a first and a third in her first three World Cup Slopestyle starts.
Aiming to compete for Australia in all three park and pipe snowboard disciplines at the Milano Cortina Winter Games, 2022 Olympian Guseli was ‘stoked’ as he repeated his 2024 World Cup win in Calgary.
Like Brown, Guseli set a pace in the first run that no one could match thereafter as he posted an 87.75 to win from Switzerland’s David Habluetzel (80.00) and Brazilian Patrick Burgener (79.25).
‘It feels good to be back on the top step (of the podium) and I’m looking forward to pushing for more,’ Guseli said.
