Steven John Bradbury <small>OAM</small> (born 14 October 1973) is an Australian former short-track speed skater and four-time Olympian. He won the gold medal at the 1,000&nbsp;m event at the 2002 Winter Olympics. He was the first athlete from Australia and also the first from the Southern Hemisphere to win a Winter Olympic gold medal, and he was also part of the short-track relay team that won Australia's first Winter Olympic medal, a bronze in 1994. The nature of his gold medal win – a relative veteran and 50:1 rank outsider who had come through from last place in the final straight as the entire field ahead crashed out on the final corner – became iconic of underdog success and perseverance at the Olympic Games and in life in general, especially in Australian culture.

1991 World Championships and 1992 Winter Olympics

In 1991, Bradbury was part of the Australian quartet that won the 5,000&nbsp;m relay at the World Championships in Sydney. It was Australia's first world championship in a winter sport. Australia's short-track relay team went into the 1992 Winter Olympics as world champions, but the team crashed in the semi-finals. The Australians were in third place when Richard Nizielski lost his footing; they finished fourth and failed to reach the final. Bradbury was unable to help, as he had been named as the reserve for the team and was sitting on the bench. He was not selected for any individual events.

1994 Winter Olympics

At the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway, Bradbury was part of the short-track relay team that won Australia's first Winter Olympic medal, a bronze. It scraped into the four-team final after edging out Japan and New Zealand to finish second in its semi-final. It adopted a plan of staying on its feet as first priority, and remaining non-disqualified and beating at least one of the other three finalists. During the race, the Canadians fell and lost significant time, meaning that Australia would win their first medal if they raced conservatively and avoided a crash. Late in the race, Nizielski was fighting with his American counterpart for track position for the silver medal, but took the safe option and yielded, mindful of the lost opportunity following the crash in Albertville. In the 1,000&nbsp;m event, Bradbury fell in his heat after being illegally pushed by a competitor who was later disqualified. He came home in 2&nbsp;m 01.89&nbsp;s, more than 30&nbsp;s off the leaders' pace and was eliminated. Nevertheless, because of the high rate of accidents, Bradbury came 24th out of 31 competitors.

During a 1994 World Cup event in Montreal, another skater's blade sliced through Bradbury's right thigh after a collision; it cut through to the other side, resulting in him losing four litres of blood.

1998 Winter Olympics

Bradbury, Nizielski and Kieran Hansen, three of the quartet that won Australia's maiden medal in 1994, returned for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Japan with new teammate Richard Goerlitz. There were hopes that they could repeat their Lillehammer performance. However, in their qualifying race, they placed third in a time of 7&nbsp;m 11.691&nbsp;s and missed the final by one place, even though they had been two seconds faster than their medal-winning performance of 1994. They completed the course four seconds slower in the B final and came last in the race, and thus last out of eight teams overall.

Bradbury was again regarded as a medal contender in the individual events, but was impeded in collisions with other racers in both the 500&nbsp;m and 1,000&nbsp;m events. He came third in the heats of both races, posting times of 43.766&nbsp;s and 1&nbsp;m 33.108&nbsp;s in each race. Neither of these times were fast enough to advance him to the quarterfinals and he came 19th and 21st out of 30 competitors respectively.

After consulting his national coach Ann Zhang, Bradbury's strategy from the semi-final onwards was to cruise behind his opponents and hope that they crashed, as he could not match their pace. His reasoning was that risk-taking by the favourites could cause a collision due to a racing incident, and, if two or more skaters fell, the remaining three would all get medals; additionally, as he was slower than his opponents, trying to challenge them directly would only increase his own chances of becoming part of a crash entanglement. Bradbury said that he was satisfied with his result, and he felt that, as the second-oldest competitor in the field, he was not able to match his opponents in four races on the same night.

In his semi-final race, Bradbury was in last place, well off the pace of the medal favourites. However, defending champion Kim Dong-sung of South Korea, multiple Olympic medallist Li Jiajun of China, and Mathieu Turcotte of Canada all crashed, paving the way for Bradbury to take first place and advancing him through to the final. In the final, Bradbury was again well off the pace when all four of his competitors (Ohno, Ahn Hyun-Soo, Li, and Turcotte) crashed out at the final corner while jostling for the gold medal. This allowed Bradbury, who was around 15&nbsp;m behind with only 50&nbsp;m to go, to avoid the pile-up and take the victory. Bradbury became the first person from a southern-hemisphere country to win a Winter Olympic event. After a period of delay, the judges upheld the result and did not order a re-race, confirming Bradbury's victory.

In an interview after winning his gold, referring to his two career- and life-threatening accidents, Bradbury said: "Obviously I wasn't the fastest skater. I don't think I'll take the medal as the minute-and-a-half of the race I actually won. I'll take it as the last decade of the hard slog I put in." He also said, "I was the oldest bloke in the field and I knew that, skating four races back to back, I wasn't going to have any petrol left in the tank. So there was no point in getting there and mixing it up because I was going to be in last place anyway. So [I figured] I might as well stay out of the way and be in last place and hope that some people get tangled up."

He later said that he never expected all of his opponents to fall, but added that he felt that the other four racers were under extreme pressure and might have over-attacked and taken too many risks. Bradbury cited the host-nation pressure on Ohno, who was expected to win all four of his events. Li, much like Bradbury himself, had won Olympic medals but was yet to take a gold medal, Turcotte only had one individual event, and Ahn had been the form racer at the Olympics so far. Bradbury felt that none would be willing to settle for less than gold and that, as a result, they might collide.

Bradbury had three other events at the 2002 Winter Olympics. In the relay event, the Australians came third in their heat in a time of 7:19.177 and failed to make the final. They came second in the B final and finished sixth out of seven teams. In the 1,500&nbsp;m event, Bradbury came third in his heat, before placing fourth in the semi-final and being eliminated. He then came fifth in the B final to finish 10th out of 29 entrants. He was unable to maintain his speed through the competition; after posting a time of 2:22.632 in the heats, Bradbury slowed by three seconds in each of his next two races. However, some unhappy American commentators also made fun of the race and used it to criticise what they perceived as a lack of merit required to win a short-track event. USA Today said: "The first winter gold medal in the history of Australia fell out of the sky like a bagged goose. He looked like the tortoise behind four hares", while the Boston Globe said that "multiple crashes that allow the wrong person to win are part of the deal". "Do a Bradbury" has been given the official stamp of recognition when the second edition of the Australian National Dictionary included the phrase along with more than 6,000 new words and phrases in 2016. Bradbury's triumph was celebrated by Australia Post issuing a 45-cent stamp of him, which followed on from it issuing stamps of Australian gold medallists at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Bradbury's stamp was issued on 20 February 2002, four days after his victory. and later described having a stamp issued as "a great honour".

Retirement

Bradbury retired after the 2002 Olympics. He commentated at the 2006 Winter Olympics and for the Nine Network and Foxtel at the 2010 Winter Olympics. In 2005, Bradbury was a contestant in the second series of the Australian television show Dancing with the Stars. In 2019, he competed in the sixth season of Australian Survivor. He was eliminated on Day 12 and finished in 20th place.

In March 2022, Bradbury rescued four teenage girls from drowning whilst out surfing with his son Flyn on the Sunshine Coast. For this act, he was awarded with a Commendation for Brave Conduct.

Motor racing career

After retiring from skating, Bradbury participated in competitive motor racing. After placing fourth in the 2005 Australian Grand Prix Celebrity Race, he competed in Queensland state-level Formula Vee championship events in 2006 and 2007, placing sixth in both years. In 2007, he raced in the National Formula Vee Championships at Morgan Park Raceway, placing 15th.

In 2009, Bradbury competed in the Australian Mini Challenge at the Tasmanian round and 2010 at Queensland Raceway as their Uber Star. He also made a one-off appearance in the V8 Ute Series at Adelaide in March 2010, driving with regular Ute racer Jason Gomersall on the support program of the 2010 Clipsal 500.

Honours

In recognition of his Olympic medal win, Bradbury was awarded the key to the City of Brisbane in 2002 and a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2007. He was also inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in that year.

In 2009, Bradbury was inducted into the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame.

In the 2023 August Bravery Honours List, Bradbury was awarded the Commendation for Brave Conduct. This recognised his role in rescuing four teenage girls caught in a rip off of King’s Beach in Caloundra, Queensland, in 2022.

References

Sources

  • Interview with Bradbury on "The Sports Factor", ABC Radio National, 28 October 2005
  • IOC Footage of the Gold Medal Race, 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics
  • "Sure footed champion"
  • "Bradbury still enjoying the race of his life"
  • AOC Biography
  • Ian Houghton talks with Bradbury about victory