Aussie Olympic legend responds after being accused of ‘craving attention’ with headstand breastfeeding photo
Australian Olympic snowboard icon Torah Bright has fired back at her critics after triggering a debate with a picture of herself breastfeeding while doing a headstand and dressed in her underwear.
Marking Mother’s Day earlier this month, two-time Olympic medalist Bright shared a series of images on Instagram of herself and young son Flow.
One picture in particular captured the imagination as it featured the 34-year-old upside down in a yoga pose as she breastfed her child.
“Becoming a mother has unleashed something inside of me,” Bright wrote to her 185,000 followers.
“It’s deeply spiritual. It’s primal. It’s raw. It’s fierce. It is pure. I am mother.
“My prayer for all mothers, now and in the future is that they be heard. Honoured. Respected and encouraged to trust their intuition.”
The vast majority of responses to Bright’s post were gushing messages of support and admiration, with typical replies reading “powerful words!” and “that is one crazy and powerful photo.”
“Stop it, your head stand nursing photo is EVERYTHING,” wrote another, while others wondered how long Bright had managed to hold the pose – to which she jokingly replied “haha, just long enough!”
Some, however, accused the snowboard star of attention-craving, with one person writing: “A photo of the breastfeeding would be better private or were you seeking attention?”
“Well done on getting the attention you clearly crave… sad and pathetic,” wrote another person.
In a separate post on Instagram stories, Bright chose to fire back at those critics, describing their response as “sad.”
“Reading some of these comments made me sad,” wrote Bright.
“In my world, mothers should be each other’s cheer leaders (it’s hard enough). Embrace our quirkiness and finding the joy in every sh*tty thing that is motherhood.
“We all do it differently. It is not wrong or right. Motherhood is pure. I only now consider myself a Wonder Woman because I have joined the sacred MOTHERS club with you.
“Nothing but respect to all mothers.”
She added: “I’m not looking for praise. I never need strangers’ praises. I walk this earth to the beat of my own drum, led by my nutrition and search for love and joy… obviously.”
An all-action mum, Bright often shares images and footage of herself breastfeeding, and last month did so while skateboarding with her 10-month-old son.
Bright, who is married to fellow snowboarder Angus Thomson, is a Winter Olympics icon in her homeland.
She captured gold in the halfpipe at the 2010 Games in Vancouver and then won silver in Sochi four years later, becoming her country’s most successful Winter Olympian.
Bright also made history at the Sochi Games in Russia by becoming the first person to qualify for all three snowboarding disciplines – halfpipe, slopestyle and boarder-cross – at the Olympics.
