Winter Olympics 2010: Torah Bright Brings Another Gold To Australia

For over a decade and a half, the Commonwealth of Australia has made quite a habit of getting at least one medalist at the Winter Olympic Games. Known more for their dominance in summer sports, they might as well begin a new tradition of garnering at least one gold medalist at a winter games, too.

Short track firefighter Steven Bradbury glided through the 1,000 meter pile-up to earn the first for the land down under at Salt Lake City in 2002. Alisa Camplin made it two with a stunning performance in women's aerials at the same Games. 

Vancouver mercenary and "spam king" Dale Begg-Smith gave Australia its third, by winning the men's moguls four years ago in Turin.

And Thursday night was the time for snowboarder Torah Bright to make it gold medal No. 4 for the Aussies at Cypress Mountain's halfpipe. 

After an unimpressive performance in her first run, she rebounded by executing a difficult switchback 720 to earn a score of 45.0 in the finals and secure a first-place finish.

The native of Cooma, New South Wales is expected to have her face on one of Australia's stamps later this year with her medal.

Behind her were two Americans. Hannah Teter of Belmont, VT scored a 42.4 on her first run to earn a silver while Kelly Clark of nearby Burlington, VT scored a 42.2 on her second run to earn the bronze.

Bright qualified directly to the finals after scores of 41.3 and 45.8 on her two runs. Her gold-medal winning performance puts her in elite company among Australian Olympic medalists. 

The Australia short track 5,000 meter team of Bradbury, Kieran Hansen, Andrew Murtha, and Richard Nizielski earned a bronze medal at Lillehammer in 1994. Alpine skier Zali Steggall earned a bronze in the women's slalom at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. Camplin added a bronze to her gols in women's aerials at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

Other Americans who qualified for the finals included Elena Hight and Gretchen Bleiler, who finished 10th and 11th, respectively. Spain's Queralt Castellet, a potential threat to the favorites in the event, injured herself in warm-ups prior to the finals.