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Last man standing 'Lot of luck' helps Aussie Bradbury claim short-track goldPosted: Sunday February 17, 2002 1:34 AMUpdated: Sunday February 17, 2002 1:48 AM
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- As the other skaters went spinning and sliding on their backsides, Australian short tracker Steven Bradbury glided across the finish line, his arms raised in disbelief. He seemed almost embarrassed, raising his hands in a "Well, OK" gesture as he won the 1,000 meters Saturday night. It was the first ever Winter Games gold medal for Australia. "Freakish," was his word for the race that saw the other four skaters crash on the final lap. After American Apolo Anton Ohno and the other three tangled and crashed, the lagging Bradbury skated almost casually to the finish. A 28-year-old surfer with spiked blond hair, goatee and an eyebrow ring, Bradbury was the last qualifier for the finals.
"Obviously, I had a lot of luck," he said. "Maybe it's reward for chances I've missed in other Olympics." The four-time Olympian, who won a bronze with the Aussie relay team in 1994, said he planned to hang back and hope someone fell. "Those were my tactics and they worked like a charm," he said, laughing. "This is the ultimate way to finish." Asked what he saw from his unique vantage point -- well behind the other four skaters -- Bradbury said, "Unique is a pretty good word." "I just saw a lot of skaters very close together. I saw them all on the ice and I was like, 'Hang on,' this can't be right -- I think I won," he said. The sellout crowd of 15,424 at the Salt Lake Ice Center booed loudly when Bradbury was shown as the winner. "Somebody in the crowd told me I shouldn't be smiling and didn't deserve to win, so I gave him some negative comments back," Bradbury said. But the Aussie was all smiles later. "I'm happy to be sitting here with the gold medal," Bradbury said. "That's the way short track goes sometimes. Today, I'm the one who gets the spoils. Obviously, I'm feeling absolutely ecstatic. I wasn't the fastest skater out there tonight. I had a lot of luck on my side today." He said he didn't consider the medal a symbol of how well he did in the final, but "I'll take it as the last decade for the hard slog [work] that I've put in." Bradbury grew up in the hot and humid Queensland region of Australia, where his father was a speed skater. "My mom has pictures of me bawling my eyes out the first time on the ice," he said. In 1994, he nearly died after an accident during the last lap of a 1,500-meter race in Norway. Bradbury somersaulted in the air and got impaled on a skate blade. He needed 111 stitches to close the wound. "I was extremely lucky to survive," he said. Two years ago, he broke his neck and spent six weeks in a halo brace. "It was a very scary moment in my life," he said. Bradbury is part-owner of a company that manufactures speed skating boots, including those worn by Ohno. He e-mailed the American on Friday, asking Ohno if he won a medal to mention the company's name. "I guess I don't need him to do that now," Bradbury said.
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