As Vancouver gets ready to extinguish the Olympic flame tonight, Australia is set to celebrate its biggest medal haul in Winter Olympic history.

At a double press conference with gold medallists and flag bearers Lydia Lassila and Torah Bright today, AOC Chef de Mission Ian Chesterman said the efforts of the Australian team had been outstanding.

“This shows the great depth of achievement of the team, we have shown some top results which augers very well for the future”, he said.

These Winter Games statistics for a country which has traditionally excelled in summer sports have been impressive. Apart from two gold and a silver medal, nine other athletes have medalled in the top ten and six others in the top fifteen.

Overall, Australia sits 13th in the medal tally, with the female team members holding their own against other nations on the scoreboard. Only the German, Norwegian, Canadian and Chinese teams have received more female gold medals, and Australia is equal with the USA on two.

While gold medallist Lydia Lassila will be carrying the flag in the ceremony tonight, she’ll be thinking of life post Olympics for almost the first time in four years.

“I’m still really wrapped obviously with my win here and for the past four years I haven’t thought past the Olympics," she said. "So now it’s time for me and husband Lauri to start brain storming and thinking abut the future.”

Torah Bright is still glowing from her win ten days ago, is now focused on spending some quality time with her snowboard, aiming to continue competing for the remainder of the season.

“I’ll leave the halfpipe for a few days, weeks, whatever and go ride some powder and hit some jumps.”

In between planning a marriage to fellow snowboarder Jake Welch. “I’ve got a wedding to plan now, three months and counting. Nothing’s done,” she said.

The two athletes were also presented retail stamps bearing their likeness by Shane Morris, Group Manager of Australia Post.

“This is the coolest thing ever, I think my mum will be buying truck loads of them so she can use them forever,” Lassila said, while Bright already has a home in mind for hers. “Straight to the pool room,” she said.

Flip Byrnes
AOC - Vancouver