PYEONGCHANG 2018: Australian sporting royalty Steven Bradbury made history in 2002 when he won Australia's first gold medal at a Winter Olympic Games.
Only days out from the Opening Ceremony for the PyeongChang 2018 Games, Bradbury shares his memories on his Olympic medals, his favourite Winter Olympic moments and what he is looking forward to at PyeongChang.
What are your memories of winning bronze in Lillehammer and gold in Salt Lake?
Bronze at Lillehammer was a significant moment in Australian sporting history – our first Winter medal. For Kieran Hansen, Andrew Murtha, Richard Nizielski, John Kah and myself it was a long time coming. As favourites at the previous Winter Games in Albertville, we crashed out and winning bronze in Lillehammer enabled us to put that lost opportunity behind us and made the moment a little sweeter. Back in Australia we were the talk of the town and it helped put winter sport on the map in our sun drenched nation. Memories of those times and teammates I will never forget.
The gold in Salt Lake is a hard one to forget. I’d have preferred to win that race eight years earlier in Lillehammer when I was arguably the best 1000m skater in the world. Unfortunately I got knocked over. Having three skaters fall in the semi final and four fall in the final made it a little difficult to accept the medal at first. I decided to accept it not for the 90 seconds of the race but for the four Olympics, a skate through my leg, a broken neck and five hours a day, six days a week of training for 14 years.
Outside of your own, what has been your favourite Winter Olympic moment by an Australian athlete over the years?
Lydia Lassila at the 2014 Sochi Olympics winning bronze. I was lucky enough to be there with a handful of other Aussies and when it came up on the board that she was going to try to land the FULL – DOUBLE FULL – FULL (quad twisting triple somersault) we all gasped a little as no woman had ever attempted it before. Lyd came so close to sticking it and even though she over rotated a little she still got the bronze. So much guts, little Lyd is a bloody inspiration. Hope she gets another gold in PyeongChang. If you’ve not seen it google – The Will to Fly. It's the best sports doco ever made!
What are you most looking forward to (an event or athlete) for PyeongChang 2018?
I’d love to see Alex Pullin get that elusive medal in the Snowboard Cross, Britt Cox is the favourite in the Moguls and can Scotty James beat Shaun White in the snowboard halfpipe, I bloody hope so! I'm biased though and can’t go past my sport of short track. Aussie Deanna Lockett in the 1500m and the 1000m I’m busting to see her show the world her best skating when it counts. She has worked incredibly hard for so many years, cheer for her Australia!
Matt Bartolo
olympics.com.au
