Steven John Bradbury OAM (born 14 October 1973) is an Australian former short track speed skater and four-time Olympian. He won the 1,000 m event at the 2002 Winter Olympics after all of his opponents were involved in a last-corner pile-up. He was the first athlete from Australia and also the Southern Hemisphere to win a Winter Olympic gold medal, and he was also part of the short track relay team that won Australia's first Winter Olympic medal, a bronze in 1994.
1991 World Championships and 1992 Winter Olympics
In 1991, Bradbury was part of the Australian quartet that won the 5,000 m relay at the World Championships in Sydney. It was Australia's first world championship in a winter sport. Australia's short track relay team went into the 1992 Winter Olympics as world champions, but the team crashed in the semi-finals. The Australians were in third place when Richard Nizielski lost his footing; they finished fourth and failed to reach the final. Bradbury was unable to help, as he had been named as the reserve for the team and was sitting on the bench. He was not selected for any individual events.
1994 Winter Olympics
At the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway, Bradbury was part of the short track relay team that won Australia's first Winter Olympic medal, a bronze. They scraped into the four-team final after edging out Japan and New Zealand to finish second in their semi-final. They adopted a plan of staying on their feet as first priority, and remaining undisqualified and beating at least one of the other three finalists. During the race, the Canadians fell and lost significant time, meaning that Australia would win their first medal if they raced conservatively and avoided a crash. Late in the race, Nizielski was fighting with his American counterpart for track position for the silver medal, but took the safe option and yielded, mindful of the lost opportunity following the crash in Albertville. Thus Bradbury, Nizielski, Andrew Murtha and Kieran Hansen became Australia's first Winter Olympics medallists.
Bradbury was also entered in the 500 m and 1,000 m individual events and was the favourite going into the latter. In the first event, Bradbury came second in his heat in a time of 45.43 s and then won his quarterfinal in a time of 44.18 s to qualify for the semifinal. In the semifinal, Bradbury was knocked over by a rival and he limped home fourth, in a time of 1 m 03.51 s and was eliminated. He came fourth in the B final and was classified eighth overall out of 31 competitors. In the 1,000 m event, Bradbury fell in his heat after being illegally pushed by a competitor who was later disqualified. He came home in 2 m 01.89 s, more than 30 s off the leaders' pace and was eliminated. Nevertheless, because of the high rate of accidents, Bradbury came 24th out of 31 competitors.
During a 1994 World Cup event in Montreal, another skater's blade sliced through Bradbury's right thigh after a collision; it cut through to the other side, resulting in him losing four litres of blood. Bradbury's heart rate had been close to 200 bpm at the end of the race and this meant that blood was being pumped out fast. All four of his quadriceps muscles had been sliced through, and Bradbury thought that he would die if he lost consciousness. The injury required 111 stitches and Bradbury could not move the leg for three weeks. His leg needed 18 months before it was back to full strength.
1998 Winter Olympics
Bradbury, Nizielski and Kieran Hansen, three of the quartet that won Australia's maiden medal in 1994, returned for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Japan with new teammate Richard Goerlitz. There were hopes that they could repeat their Lillehammer performance. However, in their qualifying race, they placed third in a time of 7 m 11.691 s and missed the final by one place, even though they had been two seconds faster than their medal-winning performance of 1994. They completed the course four seconds slower in the B final and came last in the race, and thus last out of eight teams overall.
Bradbury was again regarded as a medal contender in the individual events, but was impeded in collisions with other racers in both the 500 m and 1,000 m events. He came third in the heats of both races, posting times of 43.766 s and 1 m 33.108 s in each race. Neither of these times were fast enough to advance him to the quarterfinals and he came 19th and 21st out of 30 competitors respectively.