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- Aug 29, 2018
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- #41
As we turn into the home straight of this month's contest, I thought it was a good time to share the story of Australia's first Winter Olympic gold medallist, Steven Bradbury 
Australia has always punched well above it's weight at the Summer Games, and despite having some pretty good ski fields and having won bronze in 1994 and 1998, had never managed to win gold. Until Steven Bradbury came along that is! Steven won gold in the 1000 metre short track speed skating event in Salt Lake City in 2002. The win was all the more remarkable because Steven was in last place for the entire race, but his four much more fancied opponents all got just a bit too careless on the last lap and ended up tripping each other over, leaving Steven to glide past the chaos and secure Australia's first winter gold medal!
The phrase "doing a Bradbury" has since entered the Australian vernacular, having come to mean someone who wins just by being the last man standing. It's a term I'm not fond of in relation to Steven, because he put in just as much hard work as anybody else did to earn his spot in the gold medal race and deserved to be there every bit as much as the others did. Sometimes it's just that little bit of luck that makes all the difference, and luck was certainly with Steven Bradbury that day!
Australia has always punched well above it's weight at the Summer Games, and despite having some pretty good ski fields and having won bronze in 1994 and 1998, had never managed to win gold. Until Steven Bradbury came along that is! Steven won gold in the 1000 metre short track speed skating event in Salt Lake City in 2002. The win was all the more remarkable because Steven was in last place for the entire race, but his four much more fancied opponents all got just a bit too careless on the last lap and ended up tripping each other over, leaving Steven to glide past the chaos and secure Australia's first winter gold medal!
The phrase "doing a Bradbury" has since entered the Australian vernacular, having come to mean someone who wins just by being the last man standing. It's a term I'm not fond of in relation to Steven, because he put in just as much hard work as anybody else did to earn his spot in the gold medal race and deserved to be there every bit as much as the others did. Sometimes it's just that little bit of luck that makes all the difference, and luck was certainly with Steven Bradbury that day!
