The strapping on her right knee is an obvious indication of how tough Tyler Wright has had to be on her way to back-to-back world surfing championships.
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The Australian became just the ninth woman to win multiple world titles on Friday with a dominant quarter-final victory at the season-ending Maui Pro in Hawaii.
Showing little sign of being hampered by the torn MCL suffered in the tour event in Portugal in October, Wright defeated Hawaiian wildcard Brisa Hennessy to claim her second championship.
This year's success has been in stark contrast to her dominant title win in 2016 where Wright won five tour events and had the title sewn up before the final stop in Hawaii's Honolua Bay.
Wright so far has just one event win in 2017 – the Rio Pro in Brazil – and came into the event as one of five surfers in contention for the championship.
Series leader Sally Fitzgibbons was an early casualty, bombing out in the second round in a shock loss to Hennessy on Thursday.
Courtney Conlogue's loss to Australia's Nikki Van Dijk allowed Wright to seal it with a 16.10 out of 20 in the semi-final.
Coach Glenn Hall and family and friends played a crucial role in ensuring Wright recovered from her injury to keep her title dream alive.
"I had four people in Europe that were absolutely on point," Wright said.
"It was just incredible the way they showed up and what they did for me with the pure intent to give me this opportunity.
"I don't think it's been that hard, in my scale of things that are hard because I think it's just a knee injury.
"There was a point where everyone was like, 'You shouldn't really be at the next event, you shouldn't be surfing and blah, blah, blah' but I'm not really good at listening."
Wright's victory also continues Australia's dominance in women's surfing, with 16 of the past 20 championships going to surfers from Australia.
With the party started, Wright intends on wrapping up her year when the Maui Pro concludes on Saturday, with her and Gilmore facing off and Bronte Macaulay to meet local favourite Malia Manuel in the other semi-final clash. AAP
