HIP Conference addressed by Olympic gold medallist
Steven Bradbury
Delegates at the recent Health Information Pharmacy group conference in Melbourne heard Steven Bradbury, men’s short-track speed skating gold medallist at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, talk about his life in skating, his sacrifices for his sport and his ultimate victory in Salt Lake City - a real story of grit and determination to go on ‘despite everything’.
Although he freely admits he was not the fastest skater on the day, he took the gold medal after one quarter-final competitor was eliminated and then all four of his competitors in the final crashed out at the final corner, leaving him only to cross the line to win. As he said at the time,
“Obviously I wasn't the fastest skater. I don't think I'll take the medal as the minute-and-a-half of the race I actually won. I'll take it as the last decade of the hard slog I put in.”
That hard slog was not only the arduous training regime, but two very serious accidents - in 1994 another skater’s blade sliced through his leg and he lost 4 litres of blood and had to have 111 stitches to close the wound, and in 2000 he broke his neck training and spent six weeks in a halo brace.
19.11.08
