There's a wonderful phrase that entered the Australian vernacular after the 2002 Winter Olympics which is "doing (or done) a Bradbury", named after
Steven Bradbury who won Australia's first ever winter Olympics gold medal.
But it
doesn't mean to do something for the first time. In fact it means to do something so completely unexpected and unlikely that you become an instant hero. And indeed, Steven Bradbury's win is my all-time favourite Olympic moment. In fact, if you ask most Australians what their favourite Olympic memory is, you might expect them to nominate Cathy Freeman's 400metre track and field gold or perhaps Kieren Perkin's amazing 1500m freestyle gold, but no; most people nominate Steven Bradbury - a guy who no-one had ever heard of before the Salt Lake City games, and few outside of Australia have heard of even today.
At the time it seemed an utter fluke. Five finalists lined up in the 1000m speed skating final. It was a surprise to most to see an Aussie there, up against four huge names in skating. To no-one's surprise, Bradbury was at the back of the field for the entire race until the last bend when the four in front tangled and all went down, leaving Bradbury to skate through the scrambling melee to take the gold.
Bradbury has never raced since.
I had the enormous privilege of hearing Bradbury speak at a seminar two days ago (and see his gold medal), and this guy was just amazing. 2002 was his fourth Olympic games, and the best he had done previously was a bronze in the relay. By Salt Lake City he was no longer trying to win, but simply to skate at his best. He went into that final thinking that if he stayed at the back, there might be a collision up front and he could maybe grab a bronze. Realistically, he gave himself no other chance.
When he took the gold, he wondered about maybe handing it back, but decided that he had been training 5 hours per day, 6 days a week for 12 years, and if he was the last man standing at the critical moment, then it was down to years of sacrifice and committment, and had nothing to do with luck. He had even nearly lost his life to skating when a collision with another skater ripped his leg open and he lost 4 litres of blood on the ice and was only saved because the race doctor stuck his hand inside Bradbury's leg and squeezed the artery shut until the ambulance arrived.
So he proudly took the gold and now does the lecture circuit telling people "don't quit - the prize sometimes goes to the most persistent, not necessarily the fastest, strongest or best".
Coincidentally, I was listening to Bradbury about the same time our gallant RC team was competing in Almeria. I thought it rather appropriate. Persistence pays dividends, even if you sometimes (maybe even often) miss your goals. Don't quit, and eventually you'll get there.
Great stuff!
January Jollies
