Halfpipe champ Torah Bright upset she can't honour Canadian Sarah Burke

Australia's Torah Bright takes a jump during a snowboard slopestyle training session at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, prior to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014.(AP / Andy Wong)

SOCHI, Russia -- Defending Olympic halfpipe champion Torah Bright is unhappy she can't honour Canadian Sarah Burke, who died in a training accident two years ago, at the Sochi Games due to IOC rules.

"I am at these Olympics for multiple reason. Firstly, to represent my country and share with the world the sport which has blessed my life with beauty and joy. I am also here to honor my great friend Sarah Burke who left this world two years ago," the Australian said in an Instagam post.

"I ride with a Sarah sticker on my snowboard and helmet always. The IOC however, consider Sarah stickers 'a political statement' and have banned them. WOW. Sarah is a beautiful, talented, powerful women, who's spirit inspires me still. She is a big reason why skier pipe/slope are now Olympic events."

Burke died in January 2012, two years before women's halfpipe -- the freestyle discipline that she helped pioneer -- was to make its Olympic debut in Sochi.

Burke, a four-time X Games champion who was a driving force behind the inclusion of both halfpipe and slopestyle in the Sochi Olympics, was the first woman to land a 720-degree jump, a 900 and a 1080 in a halfpipe in competition.

She was the leading contender for gold in Russia before she died following a training accident in Utah. Burke was 29.

Other athletes have also honoured Burke when they compete.

Canadian Roz Groenewoud came into the Games knowing she couldn't wear the Sarah sticker on her helmet in Sochi.

The 24-year-old Groenewoud, who won the 2012 X Games title less than 10 days after the death of her friend, usually wears a decal -- a slash of red handwriting that simply says "Sarah," and a silver snowflake pendant, the same snowflake Burke had tattooed on her foot.

She said prior to the Games she was looking into other options such as embroidering the same sticker, or perhaps one of a snowflake, inside her helmet.

"I'm exploring how to keep how I connect to her competing still alive at the Olympics, within the Olympic rules and guidelines," said Groenewoud, who will wear her snowflake pendant in Russia.

Rule 50 of the IOC's Olympic Charter says, in part:

"No form of publicity or propaganda, commercial or otherwise, may appear on persons, on sportswear, accessories or, more generally, on any article of clothing or equipment whatsoever worn or used by the athletes or other participants in the Olympic Games, except for the identification ... of the manufacturer of the article or equipment concerned, provided that such identification shall not be marked conspicuously for advertising purposes."