Kelly keeps crushin' it

At age 13 in 2016, she became the youngest gold medalist to date at a Winter X Games event, and the first person to win a Winter X Games medal for Estonia. She is also the youngest to win two X Games gold medals.

During the Big Air competition of the 2017 Winter X Games Norway, Sildaru became the first woman to ever land a switch 1260-degree mute and a 1440 degree during a competition.

Because of her young age, Sildaru was not allowed to participate in the World Cup until 2017 in New Zealand, where she won the slopestyle competition.

A knee injury denied her a chance to compete at the 2018 Winter Games, but she later recovered and won a gold medal in slopestyle at the 2020 Youth Olympic Games.

"Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines," Sildaru once wrote in a caption to one of her photos on Instagram.

What makes Sildaru's achievements even more striking is that she hails from a virtually mountainless nation with an average elevation of around 300 meters.

"I'm usually training where I have competitions," she said. "Like maybe just going there two weeks earlier for my training and competitions, or we just stay longer."

Spring in Finland, summer in France, and couple of months in New Zealand-Sildaru admitted she used to struggle between school and skiing: "It was a little hard at first."

"I graduated this spring, so it's been really nice to just focus on skiing," said Sildaru, who will turn 20 on Thursday.

Sildaru will compete in the halfpipe qualification on her birthday, with the aim to make the final which will be held on Friday.