[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by AussieChiefsFan

Represent.

Had to look this up...

In 2002, Australia won their first two gold medals, the first time any southern hemisphere country had won an event. Australia's maiden gold came in highly unlikely circumstances. Steven Bradbury, a member of the bronze-winning 1994 relay team, won gold in short track speed skating on 17 February when all of his competitors in the 1,000 m final crashed out on the final turn while jostling for the medal positions. He had qualified for the final after benefiting from similar incidents and disqualifications in the quarter and semifinals. Bradbury came third in his quarterfinal and would have been eliminated, but world champion Marc Gagnon was disqualified for obstruction and the Australian progressed.

Bradbury's strategy from the semifinal onwards was to cruise behind his opponents and hope that they crashed, as he realized that he could not match their raw pace. His reasoning was that risk-taking by the favorites could cause a racing incident, and if two (or more) riders collided and fell, the remaining three would all receive medals, and that as he was slower than his opponents, trying to challenge them directly would only increase his chance of being caught in a collision and falling.

In the semifinal, three skaters, including the defending champion, crashed into each other and Bradbury moved up into second place to qualify for the final. In the final, Bradbury was substantially slower than his opponents and was safely in last place, around 15m behind with only 50m to go, when all four rivals collided and fell over, allowing him to avoid the pile-up and take the victory. The unlikely win turned Bradbury into something of a folk hero across Australia and around the world.