Bright - the pre event favourite - did not do it easily.

Falling badly in the first of her two runs she started the second run in last position. That honour made her the first rider to go down the pipe for the second run.

Despite the pressure and the quick turnaround she nailed a difficult routine, featuring the jump she said afterwards had been her long-planned coup de grace, the switch backside 720.

She is the only woman who can do it, her coach and brother said afterwards. A backwards entry with two full spins. Some of the top men cannot do it. It was the same jump that had claimed her in the first run.

She had just minutes to recompose herself and dare to try it again.

"Falling on the first run is never good," she said. "I kinda hurt my leg there."

She told herself that she knew what she was doing. Coach and brother Ben told her "whatever will be will be". She flew into the pipe and nailed her combination perfectly to score 45 out of 50 from the judges.

Then came a nervous wait as the entire field of 11 competitors were still to ride. Any one of them could have snatched her top position. None of them had the ability to grab the moment.

American Hannah Teter finished second with another US rider - Kelly Clark - winning bronze.

"She has some tricks that nobody else can do," Teter said afterwards of Bright. "She gets rewarded for that."

The Australian had to endure seemingly unbearable tension, waiting for the other riders - particularly the favoured Americans - to knock off her score. She said afterwards it had not been difficult.

"I'm pretty laid back," she said. "All I could do is what I did and I can't change that."

Standing on top of the hill before her run Bright said she had looked down and seen her supporters. She thought to herself: I'm going to go and have some fun."

Afterwards she accepted a call from the Prime Minister, a bunch of flowers form the International Olympic Committee and - more important than both - a group hug from father Peter and mum Marion.

She had asked them not to come, telling them to save their money so that they could attend her wedding in Utah later this year. They came anyway but it was only when she had finished her second run and looked up to the crowd that she recognised their faces.

She immediately burst into tears.

Bright said she was overwhelmed by the scale of the event and the scale of her world. "The whole of Australia tunes in, you don't get that for X-Games," she said. "It's a special event."

Hundreds of Australian fans lingered in the stands to celebrate the win, including Bright's fiance, Jake. Men at Work's Land Down Under rang out on the speakers. Asked how team Bright would celebrate - given their devout mormonism - brother Ben said he wasn't saying.

Bright said the pipe, with its steep vertical walls had not quite suited her style. She had fallen several times in practice. But when it mattered, on the last chance she had, she nailed the routine that she had planned to nail.