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Olympian Torah Bright recreates controversial breastfeeding photo after online backlash

The West Australian
VideoOlympian Torah Bright responds after breastfeeding picture goes viral

Olympic champion Torah Bright has revealed she wishes she had thought twice before posting that breastfeeding photo.

The 34-year-old, who won gold at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and silver in Sochi in 2014, recreated her controversial breastfeeding photo for the cover of Stellar, this time wearing a bikini top and jeans while her son stood alongside her.

She said she never anticipated was that she would receive so much criticism for the original snap.

“If I knew how these women had taken the image, you know, to represent things that it wasn't, I don't think I ever would have done it,” she told the publication.

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Torah Bright on the cover of Stellar.
Camera IconTorah Bright on the cover of Stellar. Credit: News Corp

On Mother’s Day Bright shared a photo on Instagram, breastfeeding her son Flow while holding an epic headstand, captioning it: “Becoming a mother has unleashed something inside of me.”

“It’s deeply spiritual. It’s primal. It’s raw. It’s fierce. It is pure. I am mother.”

While Bright said she regretted posting it, she said it sparked an important conversation about what women expected of mothers and the “guilt” around breastfeeding.

“But at the same time, I think it’s a conversation that is a beautiful one to have – and that little dilemma did start it,” she said.

“It's (others') projections on me — that you might not be a good mother if you don't breastfeed or you choose not to or you can't. It's just this guilt put on mothers from the outside world.

“But really, we're all just trying to do the best we can. And we have different breaking points.”

Bright’s original post garnered thousands of comments which propped her to respond in her Instagram Stories.

“Reading some of the comments make me sad,” she wrote.

“In my world mothers should be each other's cheerleaders (it's hard enough). Embrace our quirkiness and finding the joy in every sh***y 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.”

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