Sochi Winter Olympics: Torah Bright content after silver medal in halfpipe

After snowboarder Torah Bright blew her first run in the ladies' halfpipe Olympic final on Thursday morning, she immediately cast her mind back four years to what happened in Vancouver.

She'd crashed then, too, needing to secure gold on her second and final run of the evening. Now it was happening again. Seriously?

"When I finished the first run, I was like, 'Really? I did this again to my friends and family again?'" Bright laughed. "I put them through the wringer again? That's what I was honestly was thinking. Sorry guys."

Bright might not have pulled out the same gold medal-winning second run in Sochi as she did in Vancouver, but she put down a run polished enough to secure her silver.

Her immediate response?

"I feel great, I feel like I won," Bright told Channel Ten. "I'm so excited ... I'm a clutch performer, I pulled it out, luckily.

"I'm definitely going to hit the dance floor tonight."

It was Australia's first medal of these games, much to the pleasure of AOC president John Coates, who was cheering Bright on from the bottom of the halfpipe.

"What a relief," Coates said.

The silver medal also means Bright is Australia's greatest female Winter Olympics athlete, surpassing aerial freestyle skier Alissa Camplin, who finished her career with gold and bronze medals.

According to some of her contemporaries, Bright should be holding a second gold medal.

Her score of 91.50 came agonisingly close to that of eventual winner, American Kaitlyn Farrington. Kelly Clark (90.75), who won gold at Salt Lake City in 2002, claimed bronze on the last run of the night.

"What's 0.25?" Bright asked, genuinely confused, when queried about the narrow margin that separated her from gold.

"I really don't care, because that happens in judged sports. But it was awesome to hear from my fellow shredders that are now here doing TV work that maybe I should have won.

"I don't care about the colour of the medal. Life isn't about winning. It's about putting your best step forward. It's about sharing your light. I'm happy."

Make no mistake: Bright had placed considerable pressure and expectation on herself in the lead-up to her Olympic title defence.

The 27-year-old works a camera like a veteran television presenter.

She didn't like the gag the AOC placed on the use of social media from athletes in Sochi, and she didn't like the standard of the slopestyle and halfpipe courses at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park.

Just like American superstar Shaun White, who had also been scathing in his views, she was left with the task of backing up her thousands of public words with some actions.

"Gosh, it's fun because you guys have really done a number lately," she told reporters.

"All I have tried to be is honest and speak the truth from the riders' perspective, and we just get trashed. It sucks."

Asked who the silver medal was for, then, she said: "It's for Australia, for sure. It's for my family, it's for my brother. It's for everybody that takes joy from what I do."

Bright also dedicated the medal to her two close friends, whose baby was stillborn in the days leading up to the Olympics.

"I hope Andy and Neena heard me saying I was shredding for Indira," she said.

"It's for everybody that has cared for me and helped me through my life."

After she had stumbled on her first run, ranking her eighth, nobody was panicking.

Fellow snowboarder and close friend Scotty James was watching on from the mixed zone.

"I've seen her in this position before," the 19-year-old said.

"She gets it done."

At the top of the halfpipe, Bright stood with her brother Ben and smiled.

"I believe," he told her.

"I believe, too," she replied.

After she had moved into second place, with only Clark to come, her brother was relieved.

"I was just, 'Phew'," he said.

"What a way to do it. It was playing out like Vancouver. I am very proud of Torah. This time we went for style and perfection instead of technicality."

While the circumstances of the halfpipe final might have been similar to Vancouver, Bright's life has changed dramatically in the past four years.

She has seen her close friend, Canadian skier Sarah Burke, tragically killed before her eyes in an accident in Utah in January 2012. She divorced from fellow snowboarder and Mormon Jake Welch last year.

"The road in the last four years have been up and down and very challenging," she said.

"I needed to do whatever I needed to do."