The Story of the Most Surprising Gold Medal: Steven Bradbury | American reaction
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- Опубліковано 10 лип 2023
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To "do a Bradbury" is a term we now use to describe winning unexpectedly in a sporting event especially due to luck!
I use this term regularly
I say my manager did a Bradbury to get the job, worst out of the field of candidates and still got hired
To unexpectedly come through on anything, not just sport! I think Albo did a Bradbury in the last election! 🤣
Yep, its become a part of our vocabulary for sure.
Sorry can't see where luck came to it, if you don't finish you can't w,in
Steven Bradbury is an absolute legend. He is honest and humble, but unapologetic, he won fair and square, everyone else f***ed up, he didn't. He's a great guy and we love him. ❤
He raced with a plan and a lot of hope. It paid off. He wasn't at the back of the pack because he was slow, he was back there because he was smart..... and hoping lol
@@DJ.LakeSea Exactly.
Also, he had been likely to get an individual medal at previous Olympics, and hadn’t because of crashes or injury.
@@taniaPBear and his plan worked!
Annndd, had to qualify for the final to be there in the first place. Absolute legend.
Today, Steven Bradbury was awarded a bravery medal for saving four girls drowning in the surf at a Queensland beach. Legend. Hero.
My husband skated with Steven's father, also a speed skater. So I've always known how much Steven deserved the medal. Sadly, the American media got their nose out of joint and disrespected his talent and determination as a sportsman. Doing a Bradbury is a tag to wear with pride.
The Americans cracked it because Ono was their golden boy who they thought was basically guaranteed the gold. Lmao. This was a way better version
Doing a Bradbury implies persistence and the skill needed to persist. He is a hero!
In Australia, when you win against all odds it's know as "Doing a Bradbury!". 🤣
He put in years of training and sacrifice to the sport. People forget that to qualify for a semifinal let alone a final, is a tremendous accomplishment. Winning always requires an element of luck, he had it in spades that day!
I tell my kids this, they might not win every day but to be there the day it counts.
His career had a lot of bad luck, and he should have had an individual Olympic medal before then.
@@Ken-er9cq yes exactly.
To even qualify for any major sporting event is such an achievement it takes years of training so yes he certainly deserved that medal
Gotta be in it to win it!
He inspired many other Aussie athletes to compete at the Winter Olympics with more gold medals following.
19 medals of all types compared to over 400 in the summer Olympics. Most weighted towards snowboarding and skiing aerials events.
Ray Bradbury was at the start in 1994 and of course, his "Bradbury" for gold.
He's an Olympics star.
His job is to cross the line first. He did so, his competitors didn't. He deserved his damn medal. 👍
A German friend when this happened asked me if Australians weren't embarrassed by this gold medal. I told him we were very proud of it. We looked at each other with a world of incomprehension between us.
Ask your German friend 'why would Australians be embarrassed, Bradbury didn't fall over?'
I can see where the German was coming from, as a Canadian.
@@80sCanadian Absolutely. You can't win if you fall over.
Tactics. Solid tactics.
@@terryomalley1974 It’s hard to explain why we proudly laugh and show it to others. It’s such an Aussie thing.
I remember watching this live, what a moment! What these videos never talk about though is how bloody long it took to confirm that he was the winner and there wasn't going to be a restart.
Put Tassie in your map.
Winning from an impossible position is now known as "Doing a Bradbury". I read a piece on this by Australian sports journalist Mark Beretta. I can't remember the exact phrase, but it was soemthing like, "To do a Bradbury requires hard work and dedication." Which is true: Stephen fractured his spine after flipping over a wall at Nagano in 1998 (iirc). At Salt lake, he simply wasn't as fast as he had been. The injuries and his age had taking their toll. It really was the last throw of the dice.
Bradbury was only Australia's sole winter olympic gold meallist for 3 days, until Alissa Camplin won gold in women's aerials. Australia has won 4 gold medals since then, all in freestyle skiing or snowboarding.
The push at 3:10 is because that it is a relay: he actually pushes his teammate to give him forward momentum, so he can just move into his strides quicker.
Well done to Alissa Camplin, but, Steven Bradbury did it first.
A typical example of Aussie determination and sheer luck 🤣🍺🍺🍺
And we don’t even have any damn mountains.. hey, we should get them to see how our aerial girls trained..
@@stuartgarfatth1448Everyone remembers Steve for his humble determination and grit, to work for so many years to get to that moment. The Gods of sport smiled down on him, and into sporting history he went. Down here we also remember how vigorously the US officials demanded a re-run and fortunately the Olympic Officials held firm. At one stage he even did commercials for Cadbury, which helps old guys like me remember his name.😅
@@virginiaviola5097 one girl trained on a ramp suspended over a damn on a rural property. Always landing in the water. Concussions are very prevalent in this sport.
I remember watching this live and as an Aussie i went absolutely crazy with cheering and yelling
I still tear up every time.
I watched this on television as it happened. It was brilliant. To do a Bradbury is to be the last man standing. 😂Ya gotta love it .
Awesome choice of video, Bradbury is an absolute legend, worked his butt off despite not being the best, ended up last man standing
Such an Aussie way to win an event. He is a legend.
Australians are the best strategists, much to the chagrin of the British cricket team, for example. 🙂
Ive gone to a Ted talk with Steve, he was so inspiring and the sad thing is a lot of Aussies are unaware how hard and long he worked to get that win! Really cool guy, crazily positive too.
My wife used to skate with him back in the day. She was a figure skater and he was a speed skater, obviously. A really nice guy. He was instrumental in getting short track speed skating on the map worldwide and was a very strong voice for it to be included in the Winter Olympics. Many thought he shouldn't have taken the medal because of the way he won but it was in the rules that last lap falls are part and parcel of the game.
He was in my year at school at Campbelltown high school and he started off roller skating back in the 80’s on speed skates. He was a regular at the roller skating rink, (as was I ) and always competed in the regular speed skating races.
I still can’t believe that quiet guy that I went to school with, won an Olympic Gold Medal. Amazing!!
He was at Campbelltown?? Grief that’s local legend stuff right there. Finding an ice rink near Campbelltown now; let alone back then!
Too often this story gets told with a narrative of the guy without a hope winning because other people fell over, but really it was one of the best skaters in the world having the best tactics FOR HIM, sticking to them, and executing beautifully. What a story. I love it, and as an Aussie it makes me proud as punch! Love him.
Yep, I think it's doing him a disservice to put it all down to luck. He had a legit strategy. He knew the other 4 were very aggressive and expected at least a couple of them to fall, giving him the bronze if he could keep upright. That's why he dropped so far back toward the end of the race.
As an Aussie Olympic tragic, I never get sick of this story.
That honestly brought a tear to my eye! Doing "A Bradbury" is entrenched in Aussie sporting history these days! What a legend!
People make fun of Steven Bradbury. What most do not know he was the current world champion in that event. He didn’t push anyone over and he was in the right position.
I remember an interview with him and he basically said "I'm an old man and kind of slow now so I did the only thing I could which was what got me there - hang at the back, keep out of trouble and try to take advantage when someone makes a mistake." Sometimes you win because tyou are the strongest or the fastest - sometimes you win because you are the smartest or the luckiest.
Nothing but respect for the guy. Like most Olympic athletes, he certainly worked hard to get there - feels a little like maybe God looked down and said, "OK, Steve, I reckon I'll let you have this one ..." :)
Agreed, Ryan. Don't trust to luck but, whenever possible, give it a chance to happen.
Ryan, this was a great example of why your commentaries are so watchable. You are so genuinely curious in people and life and your eyes are so expressive. Bring unaffected and positive is a very rare quality on social media these days - I really appreciate it thank you 😊
I love this video as even a lot of Aussies don’t realise just how much he actually put into the sport. We mostly see it as a one off amazingly lucky thing - very Aussie- but for an Australian to even get to finals in Winter Olympics was a good effort in it’s self. He should be respected for all that came before this as well.
It was on the level of the Jamaicans making it to the olympics for bobsledding.
@@SilentHotdog28 Nope. He already had a bronze medal from the 1994 Olympics and a World Championship gold medal. So you have no idea what you're talking about.
You'll notice that during the commentary, they said that the judges upheld Bradbury winning. That was because the other countries protested and wanted the race to be rerun.
Wow, I learned a lot here. I remember this happening when I was in high school. Back then, I remember it being sold as a pretty much random nobody, winning gold because everyone else fell over, bordering on embarrassing. That is basically what happened, but I never heard all that extra stuff, like the rest of his career successes and how much he contributed to the sport, or that what he did seems like a legitimate tactic, and he actually won because of that.
Or how f@#$ing dangerous that sport is.
Plus the horrendous injuries he endured and recovered from. He's a legit hero.
Yeah I remember it being like an embarrassing win
I'm guessing, but maybe Bradbury's strategy was to hang back and preserve his energy for a sustained speed burst at the end in the hope that the other skaters would all be so tired from their contestation with each other that they wouldn't be able to hold him off. More likely I think than praying that an Act of God would make lightning strike twice and sweep his opponents away just as in his semi-final.
@@alumycrick2911Completely the case. He knew he was past his best and thought maybe he could steal a bronze
Well, he stayed upright, and the others didn't. So he actually did win. It requires not only speed, but balance.
He lost nearly 4 litres of his blood on the ice and had over 100 stitches when a skater ran over his thigh.
The human body has 5 litres of blood
So that’s crazy
Yes, he almost died.
Severed 4 muscles. His comeback from that injury and then a broken neck is a astounding achievement.
I am so glad that you showed this video Ryan. Here in Australia many just treated him like a joke..so many smart arse comics etc. They never took the time to see how much he had contributed to this sport in Australia. To me and he is the typical Aussie battler who never gives up. A very kind man and always a gentleman. Most sporting people have a huge respect for him. He is a hero of mine.
This brings so much joy. Go Steven Bradbury. Always makes me smile. Thank you.
Steven Bradbury is an Aussie legend. He's the one had the medal around his neck! We love him
We have a saying "doing a Bradbury" to describe a lucky break. He copped a lot of shit for that win because others thought it was a fluke and undeserved, but the fact is he stayed on his feet and won fair and square.
My hubby met him recently. He was the MC at the company Christmas party. Absolute larrikin and good bloke. Legend.
He won more than a gold medal, he won legend status. “Doing a Bradbury” has become part of the vernacular. Whether it’s his never give up spirit or his clever use of tactics or just the underdog managing to win that appeals to people most he’s regarded as a legend.
Surprisingly, this was his tactic going into the final. Stay clear of the others and hope that a couple of them trip up. I remember reading that he was planning on staying behind everyone hoping that two people would fall, allowing him to get bronze, but was not expecting all of them to be taken out by each other.
Yes. At the end of the day his gold medal was pure luck and good fortune, but it was years of hard sweat and training that got him into the final, and without that effort and training, no amount of luck would have ever helped.
Good job Steven. 😊
People who say he's lucky don't realise how unlucky his whole career actually was. Was a genuine medal contender in the previous 2 Olympics - even a favourite in one event, got taken out/impeded in heats by collisions, almost died twice in in various accidents while competing in World Cup events. Legitimately could've been one of the few athletes that medalled in multiple Olympics.
The story gets even better: Steven Bradbury just received an award for bravery for helping to rescue a bunch of teenagers who got into trouble while surfing. Dead set Aussie hero 🥇
I meet him in dan murphys and tried his new beer Last Man Standing proudly independent and 100% Australian. We were founded by three close friends, the two sons of the late Australian Wallaby Roydon Prosser, Damian and Stephen and Australia's first Winter Olympic gold medallist Steven Bradbury OAM.
Aa an Aussie AFL legend Ted Whitten said ‘winners are grinners and losers can please themselves’
Yes, it is a legendary Australian sports story.....the quintessential underdog story. He is an Aussie hero and much loved....and his gold medal was deserved for a lifetime of effort, devotion and sacrifice in this sport. The 'sacrifice' is that this sport nearly cost him his life.....and he literally rose from the ashes to triumph.
My dad was a pretty good speed skater and also played Ice Hockey in the 1940's and 50's. He sold his beloved speed skates and his stamp collection to buy an engagement ring for my mum, it was the only way he could afford it. They were married for just over 52 years until she died in 2012. He followed her in 2019. I still have an old badge of his with an ice-skate and crossed hockey sticks from when he skated at St Kilda in Melbourne.
I heard him speaking at the time of his book. I had no idea until then about all his achievements and what he had been through with the injuries. It was enthralling.
Grit dedication hard work and perseverance won him that medal. No-one can say he didn't EARN it. 12 years of competitive racing under his belt. Oldest in the field AND carrying impacts of 2 very serious prior injuries. To be up there at the end and well positioned to take the lead is phenomenal and absolutely no 'fluke'. It this were a handicap event, he'd have been positioned 5 laps ahead at the start! We love our Bradbury. 🤩👋👍
I think all we Aussies believe it's possible to do a Bradbury one day! 😃 We are definitely hopeless optimists, and never quit! We enter more athletes each Winter Olympic games, hoping! Some countries athletes are offered massive incentives, they are ruthless, but we pay our own honest way! Great video! 🤗
I could not stop laughing watching it live and I still laugh every time I see this clip.
He coped a bit of flak after winning like that but he is a Aussie hero too lol
The other competitors single handedly fought themselves into a losing position. They had only themselves to blame for that. Just last week an English cricketer casually walked out of his crease and was promptly stumped. Single handedly putting himself out. All his own work.
Listened to Bradbury speak at a work event few years ago. Absolutely living legend. The hard work and commitment he put in training to even compete at that level . Truly deserved that Gold medal.
Steven Bradbury - The Last Man Standing. Total Aussie Legend!!
There's a story going around. Please correct me if I got it wrong.
Steven and a mate were on a path walking to the beach when two blokes walking in front of them exaggeratedly "tripped" and fell over, waving Steven and friend through.
That's being a legend. That's what happens when you do a Bradbury.
I want this to be true.
@@ariadnepyanfar1048 It deserves to be 😊
I would totally do that 😄
I remember seeing an interview with him after the race. He was beaming from ear to ear he was so happy! The interviewer asked him what he was feeling and he said something like he felt he was the luckiest man alive. Great moment in the Olympics and great moment for Australian sports.😃
This win has become legendary and become part of our lexicon. Its known as "The Bradbury"
He was there!! He had done the work! He read the play! I'm glad he won the gold!!!!
! I love this moment in sport. My favourite!!!!
"Doing a Bradbury " is now a well known Australian saying - akin to snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, pulling a rabbit out of a hat etc etc.
Bradbury's win is so legendary in Australia that when someone comes from behind to win unexpectedly in any sport (or life in general) we call it 'doing a Bradbury 😊
This is great that you saw this without knowing what happened. I was having a chuckle at what you were about to see and how you would react to it. It has gone down in Australian folklore. If you win something by surprise after others have been knocked out, then you've "done a Bradbury". At first, he felt a bit sheepish about claiming the gold, because he knew he wasn't the fastest skater out there, but later on, he came to really embrace it because he said it wasn't just a reward for that one day, but for ALL of the years he had put into the sport and all the setbacks he had suffered along the way.
By the way, you really need to check out some speed skating. It is so crazy. The relays especially. It's so hard to work out with all of the skaters out on the ice at once and yes, they do give the next guy a push to get them going.
I expect the other athletes from other countries who knew of the obstacles he had overcome were actually OK with his success.
best time for Australia since the America's Cup 1983
Steven Bradbury…🙌🏼
Absolute legend!! And a beautiful human!
I utterly love this story. I always show my kids this when they do not win and ask why they have to keep trying.
What a legend 💪🏼 I remember seeing this LIVE on the TV when I was 12. Was really awesome to see live, my family and i were all blown away and CHEERING 🎉 I will never forget that. 😂
A true Australian hero, a very common phrase said here is “doing a Bradbury” “to do a Bradbury” which relates to winning from a near impossible position or wining from luck etc
when your last name becomes an aussie saying because of you, what an honour...."to do a Bradbury" is something I'm hoping my footy team does all this season tbh
A lesson of Life can be learnt from this man and what happened here. He could of given up, being so far behind, but if he had he would have given the others who fell time to get up and win. Morale of the story is train hard, and never give up. 🎉🎉🎉
Americans shed a tear over "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Australians shed a tear over "Last man standing"
“Doing a Bradbury” is luckier than “doing a Harold Holt”.
He is forever an Australian legend. He's up there with Homer in the urban dictionary, 'to do a Bradbury'. Or, he did a Bradbury.
I believe he and his mate made there own skates.
Steven bradburys business to support himself was making speed skates . he made the American in this races skates named appolo Ohno .
He did not charge anything for the skates ie.gave them to him for free in return for an acknowledgement when Ohno wins the gold medal.
Does that clear it up.
@@suekennedy1595 can you restructure this reply, I cannot understand it?
@@suekennedy1595 yes, and from memory, he was in business with his mate.
He is also inducted in Australian Sports Hall of Fame. What a legend.
There is a saying from Motorsport that applies here "To finish first, first you must finish"...............remember when this happened and everyone was going nutz cheering at the pub. He had his plan and he stuck to it......Last man standing and a Aussie Legend was made. Bravo Steven
I met him at the Melb Grand Prix a few years ago and I said to him, mate you were so lucky to win that gold medal. He looked at me and said, "everyone says I was lucky, they forget that there were the 4 best speed skaters in the world at the starting line, they forget that it took me all my life to that point to get there, my training, my hard work, my sacrifices. And maybe the other 3 racers were unlucky enough to fall over!" Classic bloke.
and what an awesome moment for Australia that was 😂😂😂
The only thing that surpassed that was Australia 11 winning the "America's Cup" in 1983 of Rhode Island. Now that was miraculous.
Steve inspired a whole generation of Australian speed skaters including me, he actually had started a skating boot making company called the revolutionary boot company where they made carbon fibre boots for new aspiring athletes. As ice rinks aren't as common in Australia the inline roller version of speed skating has actually become quite popular it usually where most of our athletes find the sport as it's cheaper to skate in the sun then on the ice down here.
Only an aussie can do this...DOING A BRADBURY 😅😅 He won fair & square...
There's a video on Steven Bradbury talking about this, and he talked about being undecided about accepting the medal. And he ultimately accepted it not because other people failed, but because he went through so many injuries and obstacles in his life to get to that position to win a gold medal. It's not for that race he accepted the medal, but for the 2 decades of work that got him to that position
Australia has a proud history of great sporting moments. By far, this one is my favourite.
He played smart. He won. 🇦🇺👍
What is even better is his humble speech afterwards.
I remember watching this live as I was working at the local Domino's in Brisbane Australia and the Olympics was the only thing on late at night at the time. I'm sure he could see the other skaters being a bit pushy trying to get that pole position and just waiting for the right moment. I laughed out loud when he won, it had to be the best gold medal of the games that year hands down. A few weeks later he actually picked up some pizzas from our store, they were ordered under a different name (apparently his parents lived near our store and he had grown up in the area), but as I went to serve him, I realized who he was, having that unspoken moment of, hey your that guy...... he just responding with a cheeky smile, then he was gone. As it was a busy night, I quietly told my manager who I had just served, he said he saw it but did not tell the other staff or they would run after him. lol
I remember watching this live.
Crazy first ever gold for our country but proud of it
I’ll never forget it, my dad and I both were criticizing him during the race, calling him lazy, look at him he’s not even trying we were saying, oh he’s just happy he arsed his way into the final, then when it happened we were jumping around and hi fiving and woke up the whole house, then we were like that was pure genius just waiting back for a mistake to happen, it ever there was a testament to fate this was it
As an aussie i got chills when he went on the podium.
This was such a funny/nice moment in Olympic history
The "Push" in the first race is a Relay exchange for short track speed skating
I remember seeing a story about Bradbury makes the skates that some of the other skaters use. While competing against them, between races, he would repair their skates.
Ryan, would you be surprised if I told you there is now a saying in Australia called 'doing a Bradbury'?
I just wrote the meaning in the comments not stealing your thunder just adding to yours
You’ve just watched the greatest Australian event in the last 30 years.
ay ay ay hold up a Minute 1983 America's cup
"doing a Bradbury" is now part of the Aussie vernacular. Anybody that has an unexpected victory!
Looks like dumb luck but he certainly put in the hard yards over. 2 decades and had a definite strategy to give himself a chance to win. He probably didn't have the speed to stay with the big guns but he also knew that there had be falls and pushing etc in every heat up to that point. Staying out of trouble was very smart.
@@Mate-My-Day that was 40 years ago now. Time flies.
@@Surroundx Bloody oath it does mate
Cathy Freedman?
Yeah he did well, he was a hero here in Australia for a long time. We don’t give up down here in Aussie. 🇦🇺 Bev
This gave me tingles up my spine mate!
🇦🇺😎👍🏻🔥
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
7:59
The first Australian to do a Bradbury.
I always have a bit of a giggle when i see that podium shot. That guy on left looks so pissed off - too funny.
And he is such a true blue Aussie he said your effin kidding when he realised he won
Doing the impossible is what us Aussies call " doing a Bradbury", he opened the gates for other Aussies to win Winter Gold.
It’s actually in the Australian vocabulary doing the Stephen Bradbury.
This never gets old.
Met him at a function and when he spoke about it explaining all the years of hard work and sacrafice and dedication to his sport just to be in the final made me realise he deserved everything he got .And a great down to earth bloke to hats off to him
I lived across the road from Stephen's training spot. It was on top of the water storage unit on Springwood Road near where he went to school. I was roller bladdung with my 9 year olf while pushing a baby in the pram. Stephen introduced himself to us and asked to give my son some tips. He had not won this famous race yet. I always appreciated his humble kindness that day.
For me, this was single greatest moment in Australian television. People were ECSTATIC when this happened.
He did it so hard for so long. I wanted to hug him when he said he wondered if he deserved the win. Yeah, he did.. paid his dues, competed with courage. #nofear
He did the most important thing you can do at that level. He didn’t f up.Great Aussie hero.
Well said, "he increased the surface area for luck to hit" - love it. I'm going to steal that one. It gives "doing a Bradbury" a whole new level of meaning. Not just luck, but increasing the surface area for luck to strike by digging in, doing everything right, and never giving up, despite the odds.
Even over 20 years later, I still choke up seeing this legend win by sheer ass. And of course, celebrated like he hero he is.
He was the guest speaker at a dinner I attended a few years ago. Hearing him tell his tale first hand was amazing. Great story of his life%
Taylor is quite popular as a girl's name in the US. In 2007 it was 15th most popular name. It is used both as girl's and boy's name, originating from French, but in England (the Normans spoke French) during the Medieval period and has remained fairly popular ever since, in English speaking countries. It was originally given to boys whose father tailored clothes, meaning that the son would eventually follow in his father's footsteps, such as an oldest son who would be expected to inherit his father's tailor shop. Goodness knows why it became a girl's name as well. Perhaps because many young women mended clothes for a living.
from the way he was pronouncing it, it may be Taylah, which is much more likely to be the spelling for girls here in Oz rather than Taylor?
@@pjblack9290oddly enough, saw my hairdresser today. She’s Taylor.
Doing a Bradbury is part of the Aussie vernacular now.