It pays to spend some time hanging with the cool kids at the Winter Olympics.

France’s Perrine Laffont won the women’s moguls aged 19 and Chloe Kim, just 17, became the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboarding medal with her gold in the halfpipe.

Now the most junior member of Team GB is hoping to follow their lead in tomorrow’s freestyle skiing slopestyle and strike another blow for teen spirit.

Izzy Atkin, just 19, is the only member of the freestyle skiing squad who didn’t learn her trade inside Britain’s refrigerated ski domes.

She’s the odd one out in the self-styled ’Fridge Kids’ but this is a sport where standing out from the crowd is positively encouraged.

“I watched Chloe Kim win that gold and it definitely was inspiring, our sport doesn’t really care about your age or your background, it just cares about what you do,” she said.

“Often the younger guys are the ones that are so hungry and really want to push it.

“I’ll be 23 at the next Olympics and they’ll be a whole load of new guys, we’ve not heard of yet, coming through by then. It keeps you working hard and pushing every day in training, you can never sit back.

“My past results are definitely a confidence booster, it’s certainly given me the belief that I belong and I can challenge for a medal."

Born in Boston to an English father and a Malaysian mother, Atkin started skiing at three years old and was hooked.

The family moved to Utah, enrolling her in a special school whose academic year extensively runs between April to November, so she could spend four months on the slopes.

Atkin joined the British programme shortly afterwards and hasn’t looked back, winning World Cup gold and World Championship bronze in her debut senior season last year.

And she is considered one of the team’s best medal shots, underlining her form with a World Cup bronze in Aspen just last month.

Atkin’s fan club stretches the world but back in the UK, she’ll be cheered on my her grandmother Betty in Birmingham and aunt Jane in Surrey.

And she’s loving being part of Britain’s small team in South Korea, its atmosphere so different from the monster US delegation with their personal chefs and no-nonsense security.

“My grandma was so happy and proud when I got the call, she probably told everyone,” she said.

“It feels like a family this team, it’s so close knit, everyone knows each others name. I’m not the most outgoing person and I think I’d have got lost on the US ski team, plus I also feel very British.

“I’m quite a shy person, I just express myself and my creative side when I put my skis on, that’s when my personality comes alive.”

Meanwhile, speed skater Elise Christie has vowed not to hold back ahead of this weekend’s short track 1500m.

Christie was left in tears after crashing on the final lap of 500m short track speed skating final, meaning she finished just outside the medals in fourth.

“I’ll still be racing fearless,” she insists. “I picked myself up the next day, I even felt better that night. I’ve had so much support from back home, which is incredible.

“I’ve heard from Jessica Ennis-Hill and Kelly Holmes and they are my two biggest heroes and it’s overwhelming they’ve messaged me.

“This is a total opposite feeling to Sochi and I feel ready to go again."

Watch Izzy Atkin go for her medal tomorrow at 4am on Eurosport 2. Don’t miss a moment of the Olympic Winter Games on Eurosport and Eurosport Player. Go to www.Eurosport.co.uk