Torah grew up in her element. Spending her childhood at the base of the Snowy Mountains in Cooma, Australia, her parents put her on skis at the age of two. A bad snow season somehow led her to try snowboarding when she was eleven and she promptly abandoned ski racing and hasn’t looked back.
At the age of 15, Torah charged onto the international snowboard scene when she took second place at the World Snowboarding Championships Big Air. By the end of the 2003/2004 season, she had won the FIS World Cup half pipe finals, making her runner up in the final World Cup standings and earning her a sponsorship with Roxy. With two 2005 World Cup bronzes, she qualified for the 2006 Australian Olympic Team and made her country proud. Unfortunately, she missed the medal podium, placing fifth. But her loss only seems to have made her more determined to attain greatness.
These days, she is known as one of the most dynamic snowboarders in the world. Stomping groundbreaking Halfpipe combos, launching huge off massive kickers and harnessing an ability to remain focused in even the most stressful competition situations. Torah has made a name for herself as one of the riders to beat in every contest she enters. Although she claims not to be competitive by nature, her long list of results suggests otherwise.
In 06/07 it was Torah’s time to shine and almost every contest she entered saw her walk away with a podium finish and heaps of points. Major wins at the 5Star Nippon Open and World Superpipe Championships as well as four podium results from the 6Star US Open and Roxy Chicken Jam had Torah take out the TTR World Championship Title.
The 07/08 season proved a little tougher for the Aussie shredder with Jamie Anderson chasing the title. An excellent start in New Zealand along some strong finishes throughout and three podiums and two titles in March 07 almost had Torah claim a second TTR World Title. She finished close behind Anderson as Swatch TTR World No.2.
Although the 08/09 season saw Bright opt out of many contests, focusing instead on other commitments, she still fit in the 09 6Star Burton US Open, placing fourth in the slope and bagging another title with a first in the pipe. It was a result of her putting together one of the most incredible pipe runs in women’s snowboarding that included a 720 Indy, a Crippler, Backside 360 Indy, a sick Switch Backside 720 and a Backside 540.
It’s a wonder, coming from Australia, where Torah gets her on snow talent, but snow sports run deep in the Bright family. Torah’s older sister Rowena competed as a ski racer in the 2002 Olympics, and her brother Ben, also a competitive snowboarder, travels with her to every competition, coaching her and pushing her to succeed. Her younger sister Abi is also following in Torah’s footsteps, pursuing a professional snowboarding career.
Torah spends the entire year on the slopes, dividing her time between two hemispheres and two winters in Salt Lake City and her hometown of Cooma. But in the mean time when she’s not on the slopes, you can bet Torah’s having a great time with family and friends, whether it’s pond hockey out back, surfing some waves down under, or bustin’ some moves on the dance floor.
in 2009/10, Torah went all on her way to the Olympics, walking home with her yet biggest achievement of her career beside the TTR World Champion Title, the Olympic Gold Medal in the Halfpipe of the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.
We expect to see much more of Torah on the TTR Tour events in the 2010/11 season and hope to see her bust out her doublecork in the halfpipe.