Olympic snowboarder Torah Bright’s parents leave Cooma for Vancouver, Canada, next month to cheer her on in the Winter Olympics, held from February 12 to 28.
Marion and Peter Bright are proud of Torah, but not purely for her athletics.
“I’m very proud but it’s more the love a parent has unconditionally for a child and it’s the thrill I feel about how she’s handling herself in the world,” Mrs Bright said.
“We raised our children to manage the talents they have for the good of all. I’ve told Torah we’re less interested in an Olympic medal than we are in her being healthy and well,” Mrs Bright said.
The Brights chose Torah’s name when a Jewish friend told them it meant more than just Jewish law or the first five books of the Old Testament. When Mrs Bright learned the word also meant “bearer of great message” she chose it for her fourth child, should it be a girl.
Torah has lived up to her name in that she often speaks to groups of young people and has them in mind when she makes public statements. As a successful elite athlete she often features on television, in the news and online.
“Torah has a gentle, sweet heart and an amazing following of younger people. Kids adore her,” Mrs Bright said.
Mrs Bright said as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, the Mormons, she and Mr Bright have worked to instil their children with correct principles to enable them to govern themselves.
“Peter and I were raised Catholic and I’ve also been agnostic and an atheist,” Mrs Bright said.
“When I had two small children I felt like they should be raised with some spiritualism so I researched many religions and beliefs. I met Mormons through a business connection and when I was reading the Book of Mormons I experienced what I would call a spiritual awareness,” Mrs Bright said.
The Bright’s five children are all talented athletes but each approach sport differently. Their daughter Rowena fixed her sights on the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, and made it, representing Australia in alpine skiing.
With Torah, the Brights say she has made a natural progression; event by event she has worked her way to the Olympics. Their only son Ben was an Olympic Winter Institute of Australia snowboarder but recognised Torah’s snowboarding potential and became her coach.
Mr Bright said despite Torah’s daredevil snowboarding career, she only took calculated risks and was not a reckless thrill-seeker. He said he had no doubt Torah was a fearless skier when he stood atop The Bluff, Thredbo’s advanced run, with four-year-old Torah and her brother Ben, then 6.
“A man skied up to us and said to me ‘you’re game bringing little kids up here’. Torah tilted her helmet to look at him and then just launched straight down The Bluff, it’s a black run [rated most difficult] and the man was stunned,” Mr Bright said.
Torah is marrying American fiance, Jake Welch, in Utah on June 4. Jake and Torah are both 23 and he is also a professional snowboarder. Rather than competing, Jake features in snowboarding films.
When Mrs Bright told her daughter she would worry less when Torah was no longer doing freestyle snowboarding, Torah warned, “you’ll have more to worry about, Jake has to check for avalanches in his work”.
Despite growing up in Sydney, Mr Bright is a fourth generation Numeralla and Countegany man and Peter and Marion Bright began married life on the land. The drought drove them into Cooma in the 1980s but Mrs Bright said this had blessings.
“I was driving the children into Cooma every night for things like scouts, music and swimming. Once we moved to town they could just run down the hill to the pool or to soccer,” Mrs Bright said.
Mr Bright has run Monaro Water Services, a pumping and irrigation business, for 27 years. Mrs Bright has been a registered nurse for 30 years and works at the Sir William Hudson Memorial Centre. She recently took over the New Beginnings premises on Sharp Street and will soon relaunch as The Wealth of Health.
“I call myself a holistic nurse and my work dynamic eco-medicine. I have a health science background and have added multiple modalities of natural healing over 25 years,” Mrs Bright said.
Torah Bright is a NSW Institute of Sport athlete and trains at Jindabyne Sport and Recreation when she’s in the Snowy Mountains. Last year, while recovering from shoulder surgery, caught up with school friends from Cooma North Public School and Snowy Mountains Grammar School.
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