METRO VANCOUVER — Australian snowboarder Torah Bright expected her parents to be watching on television. They surprised her by being at the bottom of the hill."I had no idea my parents were here and I'm dying to get up there," said Bright, who won the women's Olympic halfpipe title Thursday at Cypress Mountain. "I thought they were back home in Australia. I told them not to come [but] I love it ... I told them I'd prefer them at my wedding than this."
Marian and Peter Bright couldn't wait for those nuptials, scheduled for June. They watched their daughter execute a difficult switchback 720 during her do-or-die second run in the final. She was rewarded with 45 of a possible 50 points from the judges.
That mark held up for gold and two former Olympic champions from the United States had to settle for the leftover medals. Hannah Teter, who won this event four years ago in Turin, picked up silver, while Kelly Clark earned bronze to go with her gold from 2002 in Salt Lake City.
Bright said she was inspired by watching the men's competition Wednesday when American Shaun White successfully defended his title.
"I always look at the guys' riding to take my level of riding up a little bit," said Bright. "My brother, Ben, has always there pushing me on, too. That's why we see the switchback 7s (which involve a double spin and two full rotations). I wouldn't have thought it was possible for me to do that."
Canada's Mercedes Nicoll finished sixth. The 25-year-old Whistler native sat fourth after the first of two runs with a 34.3 score. She wiped out on her second attempt, though, and was overtaken by other riders.
"It's huge to be in pretty much my backyard and make it to finals," said Nicoll.
She advanced to the final 12 with an impressive 40.1 score in the semifinal.
"That was my best score ever," Nicoll beamed. "I learned a new trick on the last day of practice -- a Cab 7. I put it in my run and it totally helped me out."
Bright, meanwhile, steered clear of trying a Double Cork -- a manoeuvre involving two off-axis flips while performing multiple rotations. No female rider has ever landed such a trick. She aced the switchback 720, though, a difficult trick that many elite male competitors would have trouble landing consistently.
"That didn't come easy," said Ben Bright, who coaches his sister. "It's incredibly technical and incredibly blind."
More difficult tricks are almost certainly on the horizon. Clark, this year's bronze medallist, compared the ever-increasing difficulty of halfpipe tricks to a barrier broken 56 years ago by British runner Roger Bannister.
"It's kind of like the four-minute mile," said Clark. "They were proving it scientifically impossible and now you can't even get to the Olympics with that [time] as a runner.
"Once someone opens the door, everybody starts doing it."
Halifax's Sarah Conrad bowed out in the semifinal, and placed 18th. Palmer Taylor of Collingwood, Ont., finished 26th after her preliminary runs didn't qualify for the semis. At 17, Taylor is the youngest Canadian Olympian at these Games.
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