Torah Bright prepared to take on the world as she chases another Olympic gold medal

PLENTY has been written in the Winter Olympics lead-up about Australian snowboarding superstar Torah Bright.

PLENTY has been written in the Winter Olympics lead-up about Australian snowboarding superstar Torah Bright.

We read that she's relaxed, beautiful and supremely talented, and that's all 100 per cent true.

Torah Bright is hard not to like. And today, when she shoots for the first of three potential gold medals at the Sochi Winter Olympics, the whole of Australia will be behind her.

But as Bright has shown in Sochi this week, she is a much more complex person than the one-dimensional character she's often portrayed as.

There's a lot more to the woman who grew up in NSW Snowy Mountains town of Cooma than snowboarding, blonde hair and that famous toothy smile.

Go into a media conference and you see a different Torah, a Torah in control. Some athletes sit up front and let the reporters on the floor control proceedings. Not Torah. It's her show and she's on the front foot throughout.

No sooner had Bright touched down earlier this week than she teed off on the slopestyle course that she hadn't even seen yet.

She and her coach/brother Ben took aim at the company that had designed the course, claiming it wasn't the premier course designer in the world.

The outburst caught everybody by surprise. To those accustomed only to her sweetness, it felt a little like the tooth fairy complaining about being short-changed.

But Torah was proved right. She wasn't whingeing, she was warning.

Surely enough, a Norwegian male competitor had a serious training crash after the last jump on the course, which Torah had described in concerned tones as "very, very large".

The Norwegian was stretchered off.

Others have since come to grief on the course, and no less a superstar than American Shaun White pulled out of the slopestyle.

News_Rich_Media: Australia's best medal chance at the Sochi Games, Torah Bright, has raised safety concerns just days out from competition, saying the best in the business weren't consulted when the new courses were created.

There is now the suggestion the course has been reshaped, emphasising that in the world of snowboarding, Torah Bright is a woman with clout.

She is also, to some extent, a woman of mystery.

Torah was asked earlier this week whether she feared she was spreading herself too thinly as she prepares for an unprecedented three snowboard events at these Olympics.

It seemed both a fair and obvious question, but the 27-year-old chose not to answer it. Instead, she stated simply that she had a secret Games weapon.

Weet-Bix.

That's right, Weet-Bix.

For the record, she has done Weet-Bix ads in the past. Her sponsors currently include surfwear giant Roxy, with whom she has her own line of snow gear.

There are contradictions about Torah Bright too.

Though she has spoken often about her devotion to the Church of Latter Day Saints, she has been seen with a bottle of Coke in hand. Caffeine is expressly forbidden by the church.

She has also used occasional profanities and the word "hell" on social media, which is hardly typical Mormon behaviour.

Then there's her rebellious streak.

The golden girl of the Vancouver Olympics is behind a simmering controversy over the fairness of Australia's athlete funding, forming an informal group called #teamoutcast.

Teenage snowboarders Scotty James, Belle Brockhoff and Jarryd Hughes are part of the outsiders' club, greeting each other with a secret handshake.

And of course, she said before arriving in Sochi that the $50 billion Russian president Vladimir Putin was spending on the Olympics could be better spent alleviating world hunger.

Interesting comments from a woman taking on her biggest Olympic challenge yet.

Torah Bright is different from many Olympians in that she doesn't need the Olympics. Most summer and winter Olympians are desperate for the profile and financial opportunities that any small success will afford them.

Torah doesn't need any of that. She's been a pin-up in the lucrative snowboard world for the best part of a decade now.

She is, however, extremely competitive. Torah likes to win. She wants to win.

The slopestyle is not her best event but she finished second in pre-qualifying on Thursday and you'd be mad to bet against her today.