Age: 23

Birthplace: Cooma, Australia

Resides in: Salt Lake City, Utah

Years in X Games: 7

2010 Events: snowboard superpipe

Australian snowboarding phenom Torah Bright isn’t just defending her 2009 Winter X gold in the superpipe at this year’s X Games. She is looking to break new ground for all of women’s snowboarding.

Bright has been perfecting a double cork move. and could be the first female rider to pull it off in competition should she bust it out in the Buttermilk superpipe under the lights on Saturday night.

“It’s the X Games,” says Bright, who owns two golds and a silver in the superpipe, all claimed in the last three years. “You never know what you are going to see.”

Trying to put her finger on what makes the X Games so special, Bright points to the venue. Somehow, event organizers are able to squeeze dozens of events over four days into a one compact area at the base of Buttermilk Mountain. Spectators don’t have to move more than a few hundred yards to take it all in.

“It’s a circus, you know?” Bright says. “It’s exciting to see all that, all the lights at night.”

What really amazes Bright is the progression she’s seen in her sport over the last five years.

“Snowboarding is a lifestyle sport,” she says. “That’s what we all love about it. But there’s a more professional approach to it. Everybody is in the gym, getting ready for battle and what we put our bodies through.”

   Photo by Zach Ornitz/Aspen Daily News

Torah Bright looks to defend her Snowboard Superpipe title at this year's Winter X Games 14

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