39 Facts About Steven Bradbury

Steven John Bradbury OAM was born on 14 October 1973 and is an Australian former short-track speed skater and four-time Olympian.

Steven Bradbury was the first athlete from Australia and the first from the Southern Hemisphere to win a Winter Olympic gold medal, and he was part of the short-track relay team that won Australia's first Winter Olympic medal, a bronze in 1994.

Steven Bradbury was unable to help, as he had been named as the reserve for the team and was sitting on the bench.

At the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway, Steven Bradbury was part of the short-track relay team that won Australia's first Winter Olympic medal, a bronze.

Steven Bradbury came fourth in the B final and was classified eighth overall out of 31 competitors.

Nevertheless, because of the high rate of accidents, Steven Bradbury came 24th out of 31 competitors.

All four of his quadriceps muscles had been sliced through, and Steven Bradbury thought that he would die if he lost consciousness.

Steven Bradbury's leg needed 18 months before it was back to full strength.

In September 2000, Steven Bradbury broke his neck in a training accident.

Steven Bradbury spent a month and a half in a halo brace, and needed four pins to be inserted in his skull and screws and plates bolted into his back and chest.

Steven Bradbury wanted redemption after the crashes in the individual races in 1994 and 1998, even though he conceded that he would be past his best in terms of challenging for the medals.

Steven Bradbury took an unlikely gold medal win in the men's short-track 1000 metres event at the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

However, in the quarter-finals, Steven Bradbury was allocated to the same race as Apolo Anton Ohno, the favourite from the host nation, and Marc Gagnon of Canada, the defending world champion.

Steven Bradbury finished third in his race and thought himself to be eliminated, but Gagnon was disqualified for obstructing another racer, allowing the Australian to advance to the semi-finals.

Steven Bradbury's 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.

Steven 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.

Steven Bradbury became the first person from a southern-hemisphere country to win a Winter Olympic event.

Steven Bradbury 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.

Steven Bradbury cited the host-nation pressure on Ohno, who was expected to win all four of his events.

Li, much like Steven 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.

Steven Bradbury felt that none would be willing to settle for less than gold and that, as a result, they might collide.

Steven Bradbury had three other events at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Steven Bradbury then came fifth in the B final to finish 10th out of 29 entrants.

Steven Bradbury 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.

Steven Bradbury's feat has entered the Australian colloquial vernacular in the phrase "doing a Steven Bradbury", meaning an unexpected or unusual success.

Steven 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.

Steven Bradbury's stamp was issued on 20 February 2002, four days after his victory.

Steven Bradbury received $20,000 for the use of his image.

Steven Bradbury was courted for sponsorship after his triumph and was interviewed on many American television shows.

Steven Bradbury had previously supported himself by making skating boots in a backyard workshop; his Revolutionary Boot Company supplied Ohno with free boots, and Bradbury had asked Ohno to endorse his boots when he won in Salt Lake City, not thinking that he would defeat the American.

Steven Bradbury commentated at the 2006 Winter Olympics and for the Nine Network and Foxtel at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

In 2005, Steven Bradbury was a contestant in the second series of the Australian television show Dancing with the Stars.

Steven Bradbury was eliminated on Day 12 and finished in 20th place.

In March 2022, Steven Bradbury rescued four teenage girls from drowning whilst out surfing with his son Flyn on the Sunshine Coast.

In 2009, Steven Bradbury competed in the Australian Mini Challenge at the Tasmanian round and 2010 at Queensland Raceway as their Uber Star.

Steven Bradbury 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.

In recognition of his Olympic medal win, Steven Bradbury was awarded the key to the City of Brisbane in 2002 and a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2007.

Steven Bradbury was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in that year.

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