Five-time Winter Olympian Jacqui Cooper slams Torah Bright over behaviour at Sochi Games

FIVE-time Winter Olympian Jacqui Cooper has slammed Torah Bright over her behaviour and performance at the Sochi Games.

FIVE-time Winter Olympian Jacqui Cooper has slammed Torah Bright over her behaviour and performance at the Sochi Games.

Bright was outspoken throughout the event, criticising everything from the snowboard course to various elements of the Olympic movement.

“Whether she likes it or not, she’s actually a role model,” Cooper said on Fox Sports News.

“A role model for athletes, maybe even a role model for parents and if Torah thinks someone’s getting hard done by, or if Torah thinks this or if Torah thinks that, people are going to actually jump on her bandwagon.

“So to create such a negative vibe during the Olympic Games - I almost think she should be ashamed of herself.”

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News_Image_File: Jacqui Cooper reacts after landing her first jump in the aerials final at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Cooper, a five-time aerials world champion, also ripped into Bright’s performance on the snow.

Bright became the first snowboarder to enter three events in a single Olympics, and left with a silver medal in the halfpipe.

“Torah performed badly,” Cooper said. “She performed badly with her results, really.

“She performed badly with social media and I also think she performed badly as an athlete to complain about the course and the snow.

“I didn’t hear any athlete making as much noise about anything as Torah did.”

News_Rich_Media: Australia's Winter Olympics golden girl Torah Bright has admitted she is just 'happy to be out alive' as she celebrated her silver medal in the women's halfpipe in Sochi.

In the weeks before Sochi, Bright emerged as the unofficial leader of a subgroup of snowboarders who started tagging their tweets with #teamoutcast.

It was supposed to be an underground campaign critical of the model used to allocate funds to athletes by the Australian Olympic Committee or through the Olympic Winter Institute or state institutes.

Cooper said Bright – with her substantial earnings – should have put her money where her mouth is.

“She talks about the IOC not funding her sport and only wanting to see it every four years,” Cooper continued.

“If she was so worried about Team Outcast not having enough money for the junior athletes maybe she should have re-invested that money she was getting - given she makes about $6 million a year - into those Team Outcast athletes like Jarryd Hughes and Belle Brockhoff to ensure their preparation was a little bit better.”

News_Image_File: Torah Bright in action in the snowboard cross.