  Sigma Ori E, a massive helium B-type star, shows a high surface rotation and
a strong surface magnetic field potentially challenging the process of wind
magnetic braking. The Gaia satellite provides an accurate distance to that star
and confirms its membership to the sigma Ori cluster. We account for these two
key pieces of information to investigate whether single star models can
reproduce the observed properties of sigma Ori E and provide new estimates for
its metallicity, mass, and age. We compute rotating stellar models accounting
for wind magnetic braking and magnetic quenching of the mass loss. We obtain
that sigma Ori E is a very young star (age less than 1 Myr) with an initial
mass around 9 Msol, a surface equatorial magnetic field around 7 kG and having
a metallicity Z (mass fraction of heavy elements) around 0.020. No solution is
obtained with the present models for a metallicity Z=0.014. The initial
rotation of the models fitting sigma Ori E is not much constrained and can be
anywhere in the range studied in the present work. Because of its very young
age, models predict no observable changes of the surface abundances due to
rotational mixing. The simultaneous high surface rotation and high surface
magnetic field of sigma Ori E may simply be a consequence of its young age.
This young age implies that the processes responsible for producing the
chemical inhomogeneities that are observed at its surface should be rapid. Thus
for explaining the properties of sigma Ori E, there is no necessity to invoke a
merging event although such a scenario cannot be discarded. Other stars (HR
5907, HR 7355, HR 345439, HD 2347, CPD -50^{o}3509$) showing similar properties
as sigma Ori E (fast rotation and strong surface magnetic field) may also be
very young stars, although determination of the braking timescales is needed to
confirm such a conclusion.
