Torah Bright left off Australian squad for PyeongChang Olympic Games
One of Australia's most successful Winter Olympians, snowboarder Torah Bright, has been left out of the PyeongChang Games team.
The Australian Olympic Committee has announced 45 athletes to compete in the South Korean region from February 9, labelling it the best credentialed team the country has sent to a Winter Games.
World champions Britt Cox (moguls) and Scotty James (snowboard halfpipe) will lead the charge, alongside world number one in snowboard cross Alex Pullin and Sochi aerials medallists Lydia Lassila and David Morris.
Lassila, one of the 17 team members to win a medal in the 2017-18 winter season with gold and silver at a World Cup event last weekend, has been confirmed for her fifth games.
Snowboarders Belle Brockhoff (cross) and Jessica Rich (slopestyle) and freeskier Russ Henshaw have been selected but their participation is subject to medical clearance.
The 31-year-old Bright's omission comes after a last-ditch bid for qualification, with her 15th and eighth placings in recent World Cup events not enough.
Bright, who has Olympic gold and silver medals in the halfpipe, has hardly competed since Sochi 2014.
Emily Arthur and Holly Crawford, who is set to compete at her fourth Games, have claimed the two spots in the women's halfpipe allocated to Australia ahead of Bright.
Sochi Olympian Brockhoff has not given up her bid to compete having recently returned to the slopes after surgery for a ruptured ACL.
The 25-year-old suffered the injury in a training crash late last year after spending much of the previous 12 months out with a knee injury.
"The team is a great cross-section of sports on the winter program, which is important to the Australian Olympic Committee," Chef de Mission Ian Chesterman said 15 days out from the Games.
"Having taken a really young team to Sochi, there are a number of returning Olympians who will benefit from that experience while there are also a number of Olympic debutants that are the future of their sports.
"This is the best performed team that we've taken to an Olympic Games with a large number of athletes who have established that they are amongst the very best in their sports globally."
AAP