| doing a Bradbury | достичь неожиданного успеха Bradbury's feat has entered the Australian colloquial vernacular in the phrase "doing a Bradbury", or "Bradburied" (as a verb) meaning an unexpected or unusual success (Wikipedia). Steven Bradbury (Australian short track speed skater) is best known for his memorable and unlikely gold medal win in the men's short track 1000 metres event at the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Bradbury's strategy from the semi-final onwards was to cruise behind his opponents and hope that they crashed, as he realised he was slower and could not match their raw pace.[15] His reasoning was that risk-taking by the favourites could cause a collision due to a racing incident, and if two skaters (or more) fell, the remaining three would all get medals, and that as he was slower than his opponents, trying to challenge them directly would only increase his own chances of falling. In the final, Bradbury was again well off the pace when all four of his competitors (Ohno, Ahn Hyun-Soo, Li and Turcotte) crashed out at the final corner while jostling for the gold medal. This allowed the Australian, who was around 15 m behind with only 50 m to go, to avoid the pile-up and take the victory. Bradbury raised his arms aloft in complete disbelief and amazement at the unlikely circumstances of his victory. A shocked Bradbury became the first person from any southern hemisphere country to win a Winter Olympic event. (Moscowtran) |
