An overnight success tends to be built on years of patience and perseverance. Teenage ski sensation Indra Brown might just be the exception that proves the rule.

Australia’s rising star of freestyle skiing had not even dropped into a halfpipe when the Winter Olympics were held in Beijing four years ago. Now she is launching out of them, landing her favourite trick – a cork 900, or “two-and-a-half spins and a flip while grabbing my skis” – and is among the favourites for a freeski halfpipe Olympic medal just days after turning 16.

Brown 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’s World Cup rankings, and the youngest member of the 53-strong Australian team.

“I don’t want to go there with a position I want, or a medal I want,” Indra says. “I just want to go there and do my best and be really proud of what I’ve done. This is my first Olympics and I’m only 16.

“If I can just go and be stoked with what I’ve done, that’s 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’ve definitely been doing that.”

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’s own 15 minutes of fame late last year.

Grant was dubbed “Captain Underpants” 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’s 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 “funny to watch from the background”.

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.

Australia’s 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.

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 “groms” 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 “hundreds of kids” at the spring ski camp.

Anne and Grant stirred up an adventurous spirit in their four children from a young age with regular trips to the mountains for “hiking and biking”. Indra started skiing at the age of three during the family’s annual holidays at Mount Hotham in Victoria before their temporary, five-year move to Canada.

Indra says it is “pretty cool” to now be sharing snow parks, pipes and podiums with skiers she grew up idolising. But her younger brother, James, remains her toughest competition. “He loves to push me,” she says. “If he’s doing a trick, I want to be able to do it as well. We have such a good time just battling off each other.”

Anne can’t 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 “my skis don’t leave the snow, so it wasn’t hard”. 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 – mostly – 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.

“I do get nervous,” Anne says. “I think whenever you see your kids compete in any sport or any activity, you’re 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’ve put in, and their attention to detail for each of the tricks. I am relieved when she gets to the bottom though.”

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 “quick pep talk” to herself are enough to send her on her way.

“I just love the feeling of flying and the airtime you get, landing high on the wall and just the effortless feeling,” she says. “It doesn’t even feel like you take off, then there’s just freedom to express yourself however you want. There’s no right or wrong way, so I just love that.”