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Gold medals from moguls stars Jakara Anthony and Cooper Woods as well as snowboard cross gun Josie Baff, plus a silver medal for half-pipe sensation Scotty James and a bronze for flag bearer Matt Graham in dual moguls has Australia placed unexpectedly highly on the medal tally.<\/p>\n
The green and gold is still above the likes of Great Britain and China, although Canada has finally overtaken us.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s ability to once again punch above its weight on the slopes has led many to question how a sun-soaked nation can perform so well on the snow.<\/p>\n
That investigation has taken Americans on social media back 24 years to Australia\u2019s first ever Winter Olympic gold medal.<\/p>\n
\u2018Doing a Bradbury\u2019 has been a part of the Australian vernacular for more than two decades after Steven Bradbury claimed speed skating gold in Salt Lake City in 2022.<\/p>\n
Even though it happened in their own country, many Americans were unaware that Bradbury became an Olympic champion in the most extraordinary of circumstances – crossing the line first after all four of his rival competitors in front of him crashed out on the final lap.<\/p>\n
Videos of Bradbury\u2019s gold medal winning moment have gone viral on social media.<\/p>\n
However they\u2019re also pointing out the story is much cooler than you think.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt annoys me that so many people are under the impression that this guy, Steven Bradbury, is some subpar goober who lucked his way into gold,\u201d Charlotte Clymer tweeted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat could not be further from the truth. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of the most satisfying victories in the history of the Olympics if you know the full backstory.\u201d<\/p>\n
She explained how Bradbury was a genuine gold medal chance at the 1994 Olympics, but was illegally pushed by an opponent, and was unlucky to be involved in a 1998 Games crash, along with several horrific injuries which saw doctors tell him to stop skating.<\/p>\n
Yet he worked out a plan in 2002, when he was past his prime, to remain back from the pack and take advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis victory was not some un-athletic schlub lucking his way into gold,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a journeyman athlete who never gave up and played smart after a career of shitty luck and finally got his due after it being snatched away from him so many times.<\/p>\n
\u201cHands down, one of my favorite Olympics stories.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Winter Olympics in full swing, Americans have appeared to only just discover one of the most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2095,1724,64,63,689,246831,2065,512,9239,246826,36333,13038,2105,11329,16652,246830,220527,45272,236743,235765,246825,151492,2041,2067,677,17435,246832,47478,246833,246827,1314,11972,246828,85,246829,243268,2614,1197],"class_list":{"0":"post-488338","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-asia","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","13":"tag-australian-sporting-history","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-china","16":"tag-eastern-asia","17":"tag-famous-tales","18":"tag-final-lap","19":"tag-finish-line","20":"tag-getty-images-inc","21":"tag-gold-medal","22":"tag-gold-medals","23":"tag-half-pipe-sensation","24":"tag-jakara-anthony","25":"tag-john-rich","26":"tag-josie-baff","27":"tag-matt-graham","28":"tag-medal-winning-moment","29":"tag-napoleon-bonaparte","30":"tag-north-america","31":"tag-northern-america","32":"tag-oceania","33":"tag-salt-lake-city","34":"tag-salt-lake-ice-center","35":"tag-silver-medal","36":"tag-silver-medal-performance","37":"tag-snowboard-cross-gun","38":"tag-social-media","39":"tag-social-media-reactions","40":"tag-speed-skating-gold","41":"tag-sports","42":"tag-star-skier","43":"tag-steven-bradbury","44":"tag-united-states-of-america","45":"tag-utah"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}