Sochi Winter Olympics profile #8: Medal hope Holly Crawford, snowboard halfpipe

THIS is a story about a blonde, good-looking Aussie snowboard halfpipe champ - but it's not Torah Bright.

Australia's Holly Crawford in action.

THIS is a story about a blonde, good-looking Aussie snowboard halfpipe champ who has won several major events around the world.

But it's not the one you're thinking of.

This story is about Holly Crawford, not Torah Bright.

Holly who? Don't try Googling her because the 29-year-old Sydney snowboarder is close to unGoogleable.

There's almost nothing about her online.

You wouldn't expect that with an athlete who's been to two Winter Olympics and who has won numerous World Cup medals and a World Championship in her sport of snowboard halfpipe.

Yet Holly Crawford is almost anonymous, and that's exactly the way she likes it.

"I'm not on Twitter or Facebook and I don't have a website or a blog," she says.

"I guess I'm just a little bit of a dark horse."

Crawford and Bright are different in ways that go beyond their level of public recognition.

"Torah's always been terribly wholesome and a very good role model, while I was always causing a ruckus at school and to be found at the pub late at night," Crawford says.

"It could be said that we are polar opposites. But we grew up together and get along very well despite the fact we are very different."

More from our countdown of Australia's best Sochi medal hopes

#15 - BELLE BROCKHOFF: I'LL SEND A MESSAGE TO PUTIN

#14 - NATE JOHNSTONE: LAID-BACK STAR'S TIME TO SHINE

#13 - SCOTTY JAMES: DREAMING OF SOCHI GOLD

#12 - LAURA PEEL: A REAL DEAL MEDAL HOPE

#11 - JARRYD HUGHES: PRECOCIOUS KID LOOMS LARGE

#10 - BRITT COX: BABY OLYMPIAN GROWS UP

#9 - DANIELLE SCOTT: MISSION: BEAT CHINA

News_Image_File: Holly Crawford is basically unGoogleable, and she likes it that way.

Crawford finished 19th at the 2006 Winter Olympics and eighth at Vancouver. But she won the snowboard halfpipe world championship in 2011 and finished runner-up in both the 2009 and 2013 World Championships.

Bottom line: she is a big event performer.

Olympic Winter Institute of Australia head snowboard coach Ben Wordsworth admits that Crawford won't be the most technically proficient rider in the Sochi pipe.

But winning at big events is not always about being the best. There are several rounds of qualification to make it through to a snowboard halfpipe final, and Crawford knows that winning is about being smart, about saving your best run for when it really counts.

"You often see a lot of younger girls throwing it all out there, and not only do they have no tricks left to show but they're exhausted from the day," she says.

"In Vancouver, I had a really long day. I was there from 10 in the morning to 10 at night, I missed [direct qualification to] the final by one spot and had to qualify through the semis.

"When I got to the final I was shot. My runs in the finals weren't half as good as the semis."

Bright, meanwhile, had breezed through to the final despite suffering two concussions beforehand in training. She fell in her first run in the final, but nailed her second run and that was good enough for gold.

"Again it comes down to Torah and I being polar opposites. She made it straight through to the finals and was very relaxed about the whole day.

"She didn't try to do anything she wasn't comfortable with and just put down a really good, really clean run. Some of the other girls had better tricks, but they didn't put it together on the day basically.

"When you get to the finals to be perfectly honest, any one of those girls can win on the day."

News_Rich_Media: The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics shapes as Australia's best ever chance of leaving the event with a swag of medals.

That's Crawford's goal in Sochi. To be the one who's relaxed, self-assured and nails a run she's pulled off a thousand times in training.

If she doesn't do it now at Olympic level, she likely never will. Crawford turns 30 two days before her event. That's not old in a sport where competitors can still excel in their mid-30s, but it's clear her body can't take much more halfpipe punishment.

Crawford has been injury-prone throughout her career. When she finished second at the Sochi test event last year, she aggravated a longstanding rib cartilage injury. Woozy from medication, she then stumbled through a plate glass window.

There was a fear she might have broken her neck. She hadn't, but she scored a rare ride in business class home to Australia just in case.

Mindful that this is her last chance, Crawford wants gold in Sochi, nothing less.

There may not be much about Holly Crawford online, but a gold medal is her stated goal on the Australian Olympic team website.

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