Torah Bright sees gold at the Winter Olympics.
Australia has won its first gold medal in the Winter Olympics this year in the form of Torah Bright who sped to victory in the women’s snowboard halfpipe.
Bright is the first Australian snowboarder to win gold at the winter games, beating Olympic medallists Gretchen Bleiler and Hannah Teter when she sped into first place with a sensational time of 45.0 in the second run.
It was a close call after Bright fell in the first run – it was down to her remarkable attitude and determination that she was able to brush herself down and recover sufficiently to race to success on the second run. Afterwards she said of the first run: “It’s not the end of the world that I fell – it happens – so I put it behind me for the second run. I knew what I was going to do. I’ve done it all before … so I thought, ‘Go have a bit of fun with it.’”
She also stated how the crowd helped her determination to put her first fun behind her: “I looked down and saw my family and all the other Aussie flags in the crowd.” It is only the fourth gold medal Australia has won in the Winter Olympic games.
Bright was brought up in Coomba, New South Wales where she learnt to snowboard down the Snowy Mountains by her brother, Tom. She has already earned herself a silver and gold medal at the Winter X Games in Colorado in 2006 and 2007.
Bright later spoke of how much it meant to her to win a gold for Australia – a country that is known more for its sandy beaches than snowy mountains: “For Australia, a Winter Olympics medal is huge,”
Bright’s gold medal win is just the beginning of what promises to be a remarkable year for the Australian as she is also planning to marry her fiancée Jake Welch in June in Salt Lake City. Her parents had initially told Bright that they would travel from Australia to the US for her wedding only, but surprised her on the day by travelling in secret to watch her scoop the gold in Vancouver.
Defending halfpipe snowboarding champion Hannah Teter of the US had to settle for silver whilst Kelly Clark of Vermont in the US joined them for the bronze medal.
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