ANOTHER Border teenager is on the verge of an 11th-hour winter Olympic call-up.
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Mahalah Mullins, 14, has been added to the shadow Australian team for next February’s Sochi games.
The year 9 Scots School student was included in the potential Aussie contingent courtesy of her first competitive international season and after being added to the national snowboarding team ahead of the southern winter.
Fellow Scots School student Britteny Cox, then 15, was the youngest Olympian in the Vancouver village in 2010 after getting a late call up to the team.
Mullins begins her World Cup campaign in Colorado and then Canada next month needing strong results to qualify and even better finishes to force her way into the Australian team.
“She is hoping for a top 20 result at the very least to cement Olympic qualification,” father James Mullins said yesterday.
“However, getting a position in the final 25 for the Olympics is a lot more difficult and would require a monumental effort. To get her own spot she would need to be in the top 10.
“Qualifying as a reserve for Torah Bright or Lauren Staveley would be a great result.”
Mullins swept all before her this winter in her preferred slopestyle discipline — a new event at the winter Olympics.
Slopestyle involves performing tricks in a terrain park, with points allocated for the complexity of the moves and style over the course.
Mullins won all under-18 competitions in Australia this year and qualified second in the US titles and finished sixth.
“Mahalah is in a very similar position to Britteny Cox four years ago,” Mullins said.
“Brit was a late qualifier and gained an Olympic berth when a teammate was injured.
“If Mahalah were to make the team, she would be a few months younger than Britt at Vancouver.”
Transition snowboarding coach Jarrod Wouters said Mullin’s performances were unprecedented.
“It is unusual to see such clarity in a snowboarder at this age, and even more unusual to see a female snowboarding that has clarity, plus the physical ability to execute any challenge you give her,” he said.