PyeongChang: Life after Torah Bright is about to officially begin.
Australia's most successful Winter Olympian –– with gold in 2010 and silver in Sochi four years ago –– had been hoping for a swansong in South Korea.
But with little competition in the years between Sochi and PyeongChang, that was always going to be a stretch and her last-ditch bid fell through when she was injured in a final qualifying event.
Bright's appearance and an unlikely tilt at a third Games medal would have overshadowed what promises to be a superb insight into the future of competitive women's riding in Australia.
In teenagers Tess Coady and Emily Arthur that future appears to be in good hands.
Coady, 17, is a world junior champion in both slopestyle and big air and at her last senior World Cup event in the latter she picked up her first podium finish.
"It was really unexpected but it was a great confidence boost," Coady said.
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She starts competition at the Winter Olympics in slopestyle on Sunday.
Arthur, 18, is a halfpipe Youth Olympic Games silver medallist.
While a podium spot for either would be pushing it at these Games, the pair appear to have what it takes to be future Olympic medallists.
"Me and Emily have been travelling together for a while now doing similar comps, living together and both really feed off each other's energy going into competitions," said Coady, a Year 12 student at St Michael's Grammar School in Melbourne.
The youngest member of Australia's team is also one of the most fearless, soaring and spinning off rails and jumps for the slopestyle and boosting off an almost 50-metre ramp for the new Games event of big air.
Bright was and is more drawn to halfpipe but remains a great influence.
"Torah was always someone I looked up to as a kid," Coady said.
"I only really have gotten to become friends with her over the past season or so but she has been paving the way for women's snowboard in Australia."
AAP
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