Steven Bradbury

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the US lawyer, see Steven G. Bradbury .

Steven Bradbury
Full name	Steven John Bradbury
nation	Australia
birthday	October 14, 1973
place of birth	Sydney
size	178 cm
Weight	80 kg
Career
society	Roos Ice Racing Club
Trainer	Ann Zhang
status	resigned
End of career	2002
Medal table
Olympic medals 1 × 0 × 1 ×
winter Olympics bronze 1994 Lillehammer 5000 m relay gold 2002 Salt Lake City 1000 m  Short track world championships gold 1991 Sydney 5000 m relay bronze 1993 Beijing 5000 m relay silver 1994 Guildford 5000 m relay
Placements in the Short Track World Cup
Debut in the World Cup November 26, 1999
last change: February 1, 2009

Steven John Bradbury (born October 14, 1973 in Sydney ) is a former Australian short track athlete. He was Olympic champion in the 2002 Salt Lake City Games in the 1000-meter course.

Career

Youth and success until 1994

Steven came to the short track through his father, who was one of the best in the country in the 1960s. Soon he was one of the best in his country. In 1991 he won a gold medal with the relay at the World Championships, in 1992 at the Albertville Olympics he was only a reserve runner; the team crashed in the semifinals and was eliminated. In 1993 the relay was third at the World Championships, and in 1994 a silver medal could be won. In 1994 Bradbury counted as a single runner to the favorites in Lillehammer 1994 , but retired early. In the 5000 m team race he won a bronze medal again with the Australian team. It was the first ever medal at the Winter Games for Australia.

1994-2002

In a race after the Olympic Games, Steven fell and suffered such a large cut in his leg from a runner's runner that he had already lost four liters of blood before he could receive medical treatment. The wound then had to be sewn with 111 stitches.

Even with the games in Nagano 1998 Bradbury remained without a medal. On November 26, 1999, he made his debut in Nobeyama, Japan in the World Cup , which the ISU had initiated only two years earlier. In the three seasons during which he competed in the World Cup, however, he was unable to secure a podium finish. In September 2000, during a training race, he broke his cervical vertebra by falling into the side border, but survived the accident without any further long-term effects.

Olympic victory in 2002

In 2002 Bradbury drove as an underdog to his fourth game in Salt Lake City. His march through to the final over 1000 m was a curiosity: he finished his quarter-finals in third, but made it through because the second-placed Canadian Marc Gagnon was disqualified. In the semifinals he was already the last of his run when three other runners crashed and Bradbury was able to qualify for the final in second place.

The final was played alongside Bradbury, u. a. the US-American Apolo Anton Ohno , who was assigned the greatest chance of victory. Steven Bradbury stayed true to his “luck in a fall”: In the last corner of the race, a runner fell and carried all the other riders with him, except for Bradbury, who was now clearly behind. Bradbury was able to cross the finish line unhindered and gave his country the first ever gold medal at the Winter Games.

Withdrawal from active sports

Upon his return, Bradbury was stylized as a national hero. The Australian Post issued a special stamp with Bradbury's picture, analogous to the Australian gold medal winners of the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney. For a long time he was not happy with this. Today Bradbury thinks differently about his victory and sees in him the success he deserves for his efforts and injuries in the years before. The phrase doing a Bradbury has been a synonym in Australia for the success of blatant outsiders against all expectations.

After his victory, Bradbury, together with Alisa Camplin , who also became Olympic champion in freestyle skiing , triggered a winter sports boom, so that Australia was able to send its largest team to date with 40 athletes to the 2006 Turin Games . Bradbury's home club, Roos Brisbane , has been a performance base for short track ever since.

Steven Bradbury processed his experiences in short track sport in his biography Last Man Standing , which immediately became a bestseller in his home country. In 2006, Steven Bradbury co-hosted the Turin Games for Australian television.

Web links

• Steven Bradbury in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Short biography

Individual evidence

1. ^ Duncan Mackay: Americans unhappy as the last is placed first. In: theguardian.com. August 25, 2016, accessed November 12, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Steven Bradbury private: This is how the outsider won Olympic gold. In: news.de. August 12, 2016. Retrieved November 12, 2017 . 
3. ^ Doing a Bradbury , The Online Slang Dictionary