SNOWBOARD SLOPESTYLE: Australian golden girl Torah Bright kicked off her Sochi 2014 campaign in style, progressing through to the final of the Snowboard Slopestyle with ease.

“It’s a wonderful start, I’m very happy,” Bright said after the event at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park on Thursday.

Placing in the top four of her heat, the popular 27-year-old avoids the semi-final phase of the competition and will next hit the snow in the final on Sunday.

The Cooma-born star scored 85.25 in her first run, putting her comfortably in first position and erasing any initial concerns about the quality of the course.

“I particularly liked the last jump, because Front 3s [Frontside 360s] are my favourite tricks and on this big jump you can just boner the whole way through and it feels great.”

By the time her second run came around Bright already knew she’d done enough in her first to get through, so she allowed herself to cruise.

“It was nice, the pressure was off, I could just let it flow and do whatever.”

The three-time Olympian is competing in three Snowboard disciplines at the Sochi Games.

She says Shaun White’s (USA) decision to withdraw from the Slopestyle event to concentrate on the Halfpipe doesn’t affect her choice of program.

“I’m doing three events and I’m going to have a hell of a time,” she said.

“I totally respect Shaun’s decision. It’s about him wanting to do his best.”

The Vancouver 2010 Halfpipe Gold medallist has changed her attitude from four years ago, saying she’s trying to be more ‘herself’ this time around.

“I went into Vancouver wanting to win for the first time and that doesn’t work for me, so I’m coming into these Games not changing a beat.”

Isabel Derungs (SUI) scored 87.50 on her second run to take her to the top of the qualification rankings, followed by Bright, Spencer O’Brien (CAN) and Enni Rukajarvi (FIN).  They’ll be joined by four other qualifiers from the second heat, and four more from the semi-finals, when the final which gets underway at 1.15pm on Sunday (8.15pm AEDT Sunday).