History Book: Doing a Bradbury

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, February 16th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next: The World History Book.

Today, an unlikely Olympic victory.

At the highest level of sport, talent and pressure collide. 

Figure skating fans saw it Friday. Heavy favorite Ilia Malinin of the United States fell from 1st place all the way to 8th, opening the door for Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan to claim his country’s first-ever gold in figure skating.

EICHER: But that’s not the first time Olympic chaos crowned an unexpected champ. Twenty-four years ago this week in Salt Lake City, a dramatic speed skating final delivered one of the most improbable wins in Winter Games history and gave Australians a new phrase: “doing a Bradbury.” 

WORLD’s Amy Lewis has the story.

AMY LEWIS: Steven Bradbury started training in speed skating as a teenager in Brisbane.

ANNOUNCER: And Steven Bradbury, that man right there, skating for his place in Australian sporting immortality.

It’s an unlikely place to excel as a winter athlete. 

Audio here from Neds Australia:

BRADBURY: You know, I was training in complete anonymity, doing it on a shoestring. We didn’t have the budget, we didn’t have all the bells and whistles that other countries around the world had.

In 1994, Bradbury qualified for the Winter Olympics. His team travelled to Norway and skated in the men’s relay with a simple plan: stay on their feet, don’t get disqualified, and beat one of the three other finalist teams. 

Halfway through the race, the Canadian skater fell. That left the Americans to jockey with the Australians for second place. The Australians chose the safer route.

BAKA: They won the bronze medal in ‘94…

Richard Baka researches the Olympics at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. He’s been involved with the Olympics for over 50 years.

That third-place relay in ‘94 marked Australia’s first medal in the history of the Winter Olympics. But Bradbury’s career soon became marked by disappointment.

BAKA: But then he had his big accident in Montreal at a speed skating event and slashed his thigh with 100-and-something stitches…

During the ‘94 World Cup race, the blade of another skater’s skate went through all four quadriceps in his thigh. 

With a heart rate of 200 beats per minute during the race, he quickly lost more than four quarts of blood on the ice. He survived, but needed 18 months to recover. 

His 1998 Olympics races ended in disappointment when other skaters fell in front of him or knocked him over.

BAKA: He also, you know, had other injuries along the way…

Like when he jumped over fallen skaters and rammed head first into the barrier. He broke his neck. 

Doctors said he wouldn’t skate again. 

Less than two years later, he was competing at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

He rose through the ranks to compete in the short track finals against 19-year-old American Apolo Ohno and three others for the gold. 

As the skaters entered the ice, the crowd went wild for the American.

ANNOUNCER: There he is, the hometown favorite, the hot favorite, the man 16,000 people have come expecting to see take away the gold in the men’s 1000… [Crowd chants “USA”]

At 28, Bradbury was the oldest skater on the ice and the only one from the southern hemisphere. But he told his trainer Ann Zhang that he felt he could take on the world’s top four skaters. 

This is how he described it later in a motivational video:

ZHANG: And she said, ‘Steve, you don’t stand a chance. Stay out of the way, hope for a mistake, and pick up a bronze.’

She knew the other skaters would likely take more chances than usual in a race with medals on the line. Baka again:

BAKA: Short track speed skating is like roller derby. It's got a lot of things that can happen.

While Australians slept on the other side of the globe, the skaters lined up. 

Bradbury was closest to the outside wall in the least favored position. The five competitors dug the toes of their skates into the ice, ready to start.

ANNOUNCER: Ready (fan: Go, Apolo) (starting gun) Away they go. Steven Bradbury was content in his semi to sit at the back and it looks like he’ll do that again just here.

The other skaters vied for first place while Bradbury followed the pack by almost a half lap.

ANNOUNCER: The Chinese skater on the outside and—Oh! And it’s a lot of contact. Oh! They’ve all gone down. Bradbury is going to come through and win gold! Steven Bradbury, from the tail of the field. (boos begin)

But the cheers quickly changed to boos. Bradbury’s initial expression of shocked happiness took on a more restrained appearance. Behind him, two of the downed competitors scrambled across the line and secured 2nd and 3rd places.

Bradbury says he wasn’t sure how to react. Should he accept the gold just because he was the last man standing?

BRADBURY: The way I won gold was obviously very different than other athletes in other sports.

In the end, he accepted the gold for Australia, not just for that race, but for all the work and training before it.

BRADBURY: I trained my guts out five hours a day, six days a week for 14 years to put myself in that position.

Bradbury’s name has become synonymous with unexpected success.

BAKA: It's a legacy thing now. “Doing a Bradbury” now means to win in unlucky or unusual circumstances. And I remember reading once in a horse race that the horse came from the back of the pack and ‘did a Bradbury.’

Bradbury’s gold medal was Australia’s and the entire Southern Hemisphere’s first in the Winter Olympics. 

But Bradbury says it was another moment that was his most satisfying.

BRADBURY: And so I got into the semis, and for me that was the moment of complete satisfaction. Because I went to that 4th Olympic Games purely to skate my best. That’s the highlight of my life. The gold medal has nothing to do with it.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Amy Lewis.

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