Gus Broersen is happiest when he’s skiing.  In fact, keeping this Mount Martha young gun off the slopes is no easy feat.

“Once his coach, Coen, insisted he have a day off and he knew the only way that Gus would follow through would be if he took his lift pass from him,” says Gus’s mum, Tammy.

Gus, 14, had a scholarship for the Mount Hotham Freeski team for two years when he trained with Coen, Danny, Martin and Al and is a member of the Volkl team. Gus went to the Perisher Winter Sports Club in the Snowy Mountains this season, where he skied every day for five weeks. For five years in a row he has won his favourite event, the Slopestyle, at Hotham, and his greatest achievement to date was this season with a win in the Thredbo Big Air.

“I am also really lucky to train with awesome coaches - Leon, Luke, Hayden and Alastair,” Gus says.  “I'm going to keep working hard and hopefully I'll get to represent my country in the future.”

While his long-term goal might be to ski for Australia, Gus has his immediate sights set on winning an international event.  That’s what he was aiming for this year before an accident derailed his plans; he was competing in the US where he achieved a second place but due to an injury had to cut his trip short. Unperturbed, he’s heading to Switzerland with Alastair in 2018.

Gus’s family manages a ski lodge at Hotham and he pretty much took to the snow from day one. “He was always playing outside, and even built a jump out the back,” Tammy says.  When they saw his commitment to the sport, Tammy and her husband, Rob, decided to enrol him in online distance education, which is ideal for when he travels overseas.

“We just want to support him,” Tammy says. “He tries and tries and tries.”