Getty Images22-year-old Torah Bright led Australia's team of 40 athletes into the Opening Ceremony Friday night.

Torah Bright did not make the U.S. Olympic snowboard team.

Since the four-woman team was named in Park City, Utah, last month, this omission is frequently noted by Bright's fans, who have grown accustomed to watching her train alongside U.S. athletes, compete in U.S. halfpipes and reside in the top tier of a sport traditionally dominated by U.S. women. So forgive them if they sometimes forget there is a good reason for the Bright slight. Although she lives and trains in Salt Lake City and has called the U.S. home for many years, her homeland is Australia. Bright was born and raised in Cooma, New South Wales, and will compete, for the second time, for the Australian Olympic team.

"It's special to wear my homeland's colors in competition, although I feel like I represent Australia at every event," Bright says. "I won the X Games two years ago on Australia Day, and I carried the Australian flag at the medal ceremony. The Olympics is all about representing your country, and that's what I was most surprised to feel last time: the patriotism. I loved my ugly uniform and I wanted to cheer on every one of my teammates in person."

This time around, Bright says she is more prepared for the external pressure applied by a nation pinning its gold-medal hopes to her snowboard. "In Torino, I was 19 and suddenly, I had all this attention from people in Australia," Bright says. "I just wanted to ride my best and be happy with that, but all of a sudden, I started to think, 'Maybe that isn't enough. Maybe I do need to get that medal. All of these people are counting on me.'"

In the 2006 finals, Bright landed a solid first run, then landed the same run again -- switch. Her second run was considered one of the most technical done by a woman at the Games, yet she finished out of the medal spots in fifth place. She was shocked by the result and worried she had let down her country. But the disappointment faded when Bright returned home and realized her country was still as proud of her as she was of herself, medal or no medal. "They don't care whether I win or lose," Bright says. "They're just stoked to have an Aussie girl to cheer for. This time, I know I can ride my best, have fun and enjoy the experience."

Dave Lehl/ESPN Action SportsWhile practicing for January's Winter X Games 14, Bright fell victim to two separate concussions.

That's not to say she doesn't have her sights set on the top rung of that podium. She does. And she knows she has improved in the areas she believes kept her out of medal contention in Torino -- most notably, her amplitude.

"I would never change the way I ride just to win a contest. I want to progress my sport and myself. But in the past four years, I've become a better rider, so my tricks have gotten bigger and better and smoother. I've been working on adding rotation to some of my tricks and working on some new tricks." It is possible Bright's Olympic run will include a trick she's never landed in competition. She's been working on her Crippler 720, as well as a double crippler, a trick no woman has ever landed. "It's not perfected yet," Bright says. "On a stage like the Olympics, you bring things out of yourself you couldn't do on a normal day. But the double crippler, it's there and it's close. So if you don't see it at the Olympics, you will by next winter."

As Bright continues to push her sport and herself, she is also pushing herself to the edge. Finally healed from a shoulder injury that plagued her all last season, Bright suffered three concussions in the month of January, including two in the week leading up to the 2010 Winter X Games. After the third, she was forced her to withdraw from the event. "It is disappointing, but I figure bad things happen in threes, so I should be good now," Bright says. "I'm not one who hits my head a lot, so this has been an odd injury to deal with. It's not like a shoulder. You can't just pop it back in. You have to rest, be patient, give it time and let it heal."

Packing her bags the day before heading to Vancouver, Bright insists she is feeling great and appreciative of the time she's had to rest, even though that time has been spent off snow and out of a halfpipe. "I know everything I have to do," Bright says. And that includes choosing a song to ride to in finals. Last time around, Bright chose the Hillary Duff song To the Beat of My Heart. "I was standing at the top of the halfpipe waiting for it to come on, but the DJ played the wrong track," Bright says. "I kept waiting and waiting. This time, I might just let them pick a song. Then again, I might decide to go with something by Miley Cyrus."

We assume it won't be Party in the USA.