Rowena Bright, 21, from the Cooma Branch, Canberra Australia Stake, set her mind to qualifying for the 2002 Winter Olympics seven years ago when she learned they would be hosted by Salt Lake City, Utah.
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"This is my spiritual home," she told an Australian journalist near her home in Cooma. "I'm inspired by how the place was founded, with the pioneers risking their lives to get here," she said. "When I first learned that this was where the Winter Games would be, I decided then that this was the Olympics I would like to be at."
Rowena is one of eight members of the Church who participated in the Winter Olympics. She first set her sights on becoming an Olympian when she was 4 years old. Sitting on her mother's lap, she remembers her mother in tears when gymnast Peter Vidmar won a gold medal in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
The Bright family had joined the Church several years prior and her mother was thrilled to learn of a Church member gaining such acclaim.
While growing up, Rowena and her family lived about an hour and a half from the only mountains with significant snow in Australia. Training conditions were sometimes poor and limited her development. She was finally asked to join the Australian training institute where she gained sponsors and was able to compete in Europe and North America.
Like Rowena, her two brothers, Robin and Ben, and her two sisters, Torah and Abi, are also involved in winter sports.
Rowena was the only Young Woman for most of her teenage years in the Cooma Branch. During her extensive travel, she carried her scriptures and seminary workbooks and attended Church where she could.
Over the years her dream never wavered. Despite injuries or shortened ski seasons, she kept her goal and represented Australia in the Alpine ski events of slalom, giant slalom, and combined. — Shaun Stahle