Brown just misses podium in World Cup Big Air debut

Teenage ski sensation Indra Brown’s remarkable debut season continued in Tignes, France, where the 16‑year‑old narrowly missed the podium in her first ever World Cup Big Air competition, finishing fourth.

Brown, a New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) scholarship holder, has focused primarily on the halfpipe discipline through to the Olympic Winter Games where she produced a standout performance to place fifth. She currently sits atop the World Cup halfpipe standings and has already claimed three World Cup medals this season, including a victory, along with the Junior World Championship title.

Her first big air and slopestyle starts of the season came earlier this month at the Junior World Championships, where she finished fifth in big air and fourth in slopestyle. Brown qualified for the final in fourth place, posting a best score of 84 points at the Big Air World Cup in Tignes with a left‑side double cork 1080 with safety grab on her opening jump.

The final followed the three‑run format, with only the top two scores from two distinctly different tricks counting towards the final result. Brown again opened with the left‑side double cork 1080 with safety grab, scoring 83 points. She then took off switch for her remaining two jumps, landing a left‑side bio 900 with safety grab for 74.25 points.

On her final attempt, Brown added an extra 180 degrees of rotation but was unable to improve her score, finishing with a combined total of 157.25 points to place fourth, just 2.75 points shy of the podium. Victory went to Canada’s Naomi Urness with 166.7 points, ahead of Finland’s Anni Kavara on 166, while Switzerland’s Giulia Tanno claimed third with 160. In the slopestyle World Cup, Brown finished 14th in qualifying, missing the top‑10 final.

Also competing for Australia in Tignes were Joey Elliss, who finished 49th in big air and 54th in slopestyle, and Aidan Lang who placed 42nd in slopestyle. Brown will now turn her attention to the final World Cup event of the season at the Corvatsch Park in Silvaplana, Switzerland. Slopestyle qualifying

Slopestyle qualifying will take place on March 26, with finals on March 28, while halfpipe qualifying is scheduled for March 27 and the final on March 29. She leads the women’s halfpipe World Cup standings on 290 points, holding a 30‑point advantage over Great Britain’s Zoe Atkin, with China’s Kexin Zhang third on 245 points.

Brown is also third in the Overall Park & Pipe standings on 358 points, which combine halfpipe, big air and slopestyle results, trailing Great Britain’s Kirsty Muir on 419 points and Urness on 392.

Olympic Winter Institute of Australia