EXCLUSIVE: Torah Bright opens up on family, tragedy and an iconic snowboarding career

Peering down from the top of a giant halfpipe, with the world watching on? Pressure.

A shiny gold medal and a nation's hopes on the line? More pressure.

Corralling two young boys and a baby girl?

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"I feel like I've traded the pressure (of competing) for presence with the kids. But gosh, it's the most pressure I've ever been under!"

Good pressure.

Torah Bright has flown from Los Angeles to Sydney for her new, short-term job as a Winter Olympics expert for Nine and Stan Sport.

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The Australian snowboarding icon's long-term job is mother to sons Flow (five), Halo (two) and daughter Aura (five months).

"I have two wild, amazing little ferals," Bright, 39, tells Wide World of Sports.

"Two wild, free range chickens and they're the best but Aura's brought in a little different energy. She's just the sweet babe, for now. The brothers are adoring of her to the point where it's annoying.

"Like, they're smothering her, you know, but they're very sweet."

Sports media types are supposed to avoid lazy clichés like 'golden girl' at all costs but that's how Bright was presented to Australia four Olympiads ago.

The beaming blonde prodigy from tiny Cooma was chosen as opening ceremony flagbearer in Vancouver after finishing fifth in her first Olympics in Turin.

Bright, 23, had suffered two training concussions on a rocky road to get to the main event in 2010 but qualified top for the halfpipe final.

There was some angst on Australian couches when she crashed out in her first run of the final.

But not with Bright herself as she posted a 45.0 on her sparkling second run which clinched Australia's fourth ever Winter Olympics gold medal.

"There's less humility in me when I speak about my past now," Bright reflects.

"I was the best in 2006 but didn't win. In Australia, the Olympics, when people tune in, that's what they see and that's the result that lasts forever. I was the best for a 12-year era, even though I only won one Olympic gold and two Olympic medals."

Bright was inducted to the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in August.

She chuckles at the memories her career highlights video brought back.

"I was so humble, I was always just on to the next goal. That is the one thing that I wish I did. I wish I took the time to celebrate and revel in those successes. It's pretty funny looking back, the humility's gone! Like there's no beating around the bush now."

Bright is rightfully proud of her status as a trailblazer for Australian snowboarding, and as a mentor for current champion and "little brother" Scotty James.

Bright was two when she and her family started going on cross-country skiing trips.

Big brother Ben convinced her to switch to the board when she was 11 and three years later Bright had moved overseas to chase the winter dream fulltime.

"I was a 14-year-old kid sleeping next to - not total randoms - but people I didn't know well, on their couches, next to their fricking reptiles in a cage and under the stairs," she recalls.

"When the success came and the contracts came, it was just kind of like, 'cool.' I didn't really want to speak about it much."

On the surface, 2010 should have been the happiest year of Bright's life.

Olympic gold meant her legacy in the sport was forever secure, sponsors were queuing up and Bright's strong Mormon faith was keeping her grounded.

That year also marked her first marriage, to American pro snowboarder Jake Welch.

But there were cracks in the "heart-wrenchingly hard" marriage almost immediately before a tragedy in 2012 hit Bright like a ton of bricks.

Her best friend, Canadian ski champion Sarah Burke, was killed after she fell on her head in a halfpipe training accident in Utah.

"Life was happening to me when I was right in the middle of peak success," Bright reflects.

"It was heavy. Losing a friend and figuring out whether I even wanted to keep snowboarding.

"The snowboarding's great, the contests are great, but the only thing I really wanted was a family.

"I knew that relationship (with Welch) wasn't right from the beginning - but you've got to live life to understand all the aspects of it."

The marriage ended in 2013 and with the help of much professional and private support, Bright started to emerge from the fog of depression and piece her personal life back together.

"It's a choice to let it cripple you," she argues.

"You can be dealing with hard shit and still be doing life but there's no one path to navigate these hard things. You've got to dig deep."

Bright decided she wanted to continue competing and she won Olympic halfpipe silver in 2014 in Sochi.

She married snowboarder Angus Thomson, the father of her three kids, in Cooma a year later.

Flow and Halo are already shredding with mum and dad.

And the former has little time for his mother's advice.

"He already knows how to do everything, of course. There's no teaching him. I'm not sure he's aware of my career. Slightly, I think.

"It's not for the faint-hearted, taking young kids to the snow!

"But those short-lived moments of bliss are all worth it.

"I'm learning an ordinary, beautiful life is fricking hectic and I don't know how my mother did five kids. I'm the happiest I have ever been."