It only feels like yesterday that Aussie Steven Bradbury won the most unexpected gold medal at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
In fact, it was twenty years ago, how time flies!
It was on February 16th in 2002 at the Winter Olympics at Salt Lake City when Australian speed skater Steven Bradbury won the 1000m race to claim the gold medal.
Bradbury made Olympic history with the victory as it was the first gold medal Australia had one at a Winter Olympics.
In an unbelievable race, Bradbury was trailing the other four competitors by about 15 metres with just 50 metres to go. During the last stretch around the track, the four competitors crashed into one another and fell down onto the ice rink.
The big collision provided Bradbury a clear pathway as he skated past the field and crossed the line in first place, while the other competitors stumbled across the line as they battled for the minor medals.
In a matter of seconds, Bradbury had gone from last place to first to win the gold medal. Unbelievable.
“First I saw the Chinese guy (Li Jiajun) fall, and I thought ‘well that moves me up to fourth, that’s not really that much better than fifth’,” Bradbury explained.
“From there it all happened really quick, out of the corner of my eye I caught the other three all go down and from that moment I knew that I didn’t have to skate, all I had to do was glide, and as the look on my face shows, I didn’t know what the appropriate response was.”
In the aftermath of the victory, Bradbury admits he felt uncomfortable, mainly due to the booing of the local fans who were upset that their American skater Apolo Anton Ohno had failed to win gold.
“I didn’t know if it was celebration, I didn’t know if I should hide,” Bradbury said.
Due to the nature of his victory, Bradbury was filled with doubt when he was accepting his gold medal. Eventually he decided to claim the medal, mainly owing to the 12 years of blood, sweat and tears he put in before the race.
After the victory, Bradbury’s life changed completely and he became knows as Australia’s ‘accidental hero’ and one of the most recognised people in the world.
“I went from being a speed skater in Brisbane, training in complete anonymity in the western suburbs, to overnight arguably becoming the most recognisable person in Australia and briefly becoming one of the most recognisable people in the world,” he said.
The thing that Bradbury is most proud of is the legacy he leaves for the younger generation and future speed skaters.
“To have a legacy of something like ‘doing a Bradbury’ (is special) – I heard that saying used not too long ago and I was sort of standing in behind a group of younger people, maybe in their mid-20s, but they didn’t even know I was standing there behind them or who I was,” Bradbury said.
“One of them used the saying and got the context exactly right.”
Bradbury’s amazing victory proves that slow and steady does win the race.
