Steven Bradbury was the last man standing in the 1000m short-track speed skating final at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.
Trailing for almost the entire race, Bradbury became Australia’s first Winter Olympics gold medallist after the four other skaters all dramatically fell at the final corner.
Bradbury strategically sat behind the four frontrunners throughout the race – and the plan worked.
“I wasn’t sure if I should celebrate or hide in that moment,” Bradbury told SEN's This Is Your Sporting Life thanks to Tobin Brothers Funerals.
“It was the most unimaginable way to finish something that had started 20 years earlier.
“I never imagined that my fourth Olympics – the oldest skater in the field – that I’d be leaving that Olympics with a gold medal.
“The strategy before the final with my coach was staying out of the way and we’ll most likely get a bronze medal because the other four are prepared to go through each other to win.
“And so the strategy was solid, but we never imagined it to be better than bronze though.”
Bradbury, 47, retired after the 2002 Olympics and became a national hero after winning the most unlikely of gold medals.