even better
the only reason he was in the final was bc the same thing happened in the semis
and the only reason he was in the semis was bc one of the guys that came ahead of him in the quarters was disqualified
i’m not sure if he’s the luckiest skater alive or a skater that has the power to curse other competitors.
He's one of the most persistent skaters alive. If you look at his skating history, he:
- was one of the Australian 5000m relay team that won our first World Championship gold in 1991
- won bronze in that event in 1993
- won silver in that event in 1994
- was a member of the short track relay team in the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics that won bronze, Australia's first Winter Olympics medal. Their whole plan was to stay on their feet and race conservatively, because they'd crashed out in the previous Winter Olympics. Bradbury got knocked and pushed over in his individual events, missing out on any medal chances.
- was severely injured in a collision in the 1994 World Cup where another skater's blade severed all four of his right quadriceps muscles and he nearly bled out on the ice.
...okay, time out for wincing and horrified "eeergh!" noises...
...better? Cool. Anyway, he needed 111 stitches and took 18 months to recover.
- was considered a medal contender in two individual events in the 1998 Winter Olympics, but was impeded by collisions with other racers in both his heats, coming third, and didn't make it into the quarterfinals.
- BROKE HIS NECK TRAINING in 2000, when another skater fell in front of him and he didn't manage to jump cleanly over him.
...another "eeergh!" pause...
...good to continue? OK. Doctors told him he'd never compete again. He was determined to come back anyway. He spent six weeks in a HALO brace and has four pins in his skull, plus screws and plates in his back and chest.
- Went into the 2002 Winter Olympics the second-oldest competitor in the field, knowing he was past his peak, knowing he wasn't up there with the medal contenders, and still determined to try. He won his heat convincingly, but was drawn in the same quarter-final as both the favourite and the defending World Champion; he came third, but only the first two finishers would go on to the semi-finals. The disqualification that got him in was the ONLY piece of luck he needed.
- His whole plan from that point on was to skate conservatively and hope to dodge any falls, because he could no longer match the leaders' pace. If you look back at all the bits I italicised up there, times when collisions and getting caught up in other skaters' falls ruined his chances, can you blame him? And can you argue that's not a great strategy, considering what it got him?
- WON AUSTRALIA'S FIRST GOLD IN ANY WINTER OLYMPIC EVENT
- HECK, WON THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE'S FIRST GOLD IN ANY WINTER OLYMPIC EVENT
To quote the man himself: "Obviously I wasn't the fastest skater. I don't think I'll take the medal as the minute-and-a-half of the race I actually won. I'll take it as the last decade of the hard slog I put in."
Dude earned it.
(Then he retired from competitive skating and spent several years as a Formula Vee motor racer. XD)