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Bright prospects despite concussions

11th February, 2010
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Australian gold medal prospect Torah Bright says she is “rested and ready to get on with things” after two concussions put a dint in her preparations for the Winter Olympics.

Bright, who looms as one of the favourites for the snowboard halfpipe, took hits to the head while training for the X Games in Aspen late last month, sparking concerns in the Australian camp about her health.

But the relaxed 23 year-old from Cooma in the NSW Snowy Mountains played down the incidents on Wednesday – and her relative lack of competition and recent practice – saying she would still be at her best when her event is held next Thursday.

“The fall I had at X Games was no (more) major than any other fall any of us have had,” she said.

“It was pretty minor actually, but when it comes to the head you’ve got to take every precaution there is and so that’s what we did.”

Bright admitted fear played a regular part in her sport – which sees riders launch themselves out of a 22 foot pipe, flipping and twisting with an array of manoeuvres that get more complex – and dangerous – each season.

Yet she insisted that her second hit in the Aspen superpipe was nothing to be concerned about and there’d be no anxiety heading into the Games.

“In this case the trick that I fell on was nothing too difficult, it was just one of those things, a little bit of an inconsistent part of the wall I hit, I popped a little bit too much … mentally I am feeling really great and physically I feel great.”

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As good as she may feel, Bright’s time on the board has been limited of late.

She’s had almost two weeks out of action and since November has only competed in a single World Cup, which she won, and a Nor-Am Cup event in December where she finished 11th against a strong field that included American medal contenders Gretchen Bleiler and Kelly Clark.

Last year was also disrupted with a shoulder operation.

Still, Bright said she felt she was riding “as well as ever” saying her previous big event experience would serve her well.

As for conditions on the much-maligned Cypress Mountain, she hedged her bets, saying on the one hand things were the same for everybody yet when the `pipe wasn’t at its best it did even out the field.

“Weather always impacts the quality of the `pipe, we have freezing rain, we have three feet of snow sometimes before the finals,” she said.

“We are all used to changing elements, I am not really worried about it at all.

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“We’re all in the same pipe, we are all riding the same pipe, the only thing is when the conditions aren’t optimal or perfect I kind of feel it bridges the gap between the best and the rest.”

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