We know that in the Olympic Games, in addition to the extraordinary level of competition and skill, luck is also very important, such as the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, China's short track speed skater Li Jianrou, in the final originally ranked last, but because of the South Korean player Park Shengzhi, who has been in the leading position, fell down in the corner, stumbled down Fang Tana and Christie, who ranked second and third, and the result was that Li Jianrou, who ranked last, took the opportunity to break out. It won the first gold medal of the Winter Olympics for our country.
I have to say that this gold medal has some elements of luck, but it can be seen that Li Jianrou is not bad at the end of the final, and even Zhao Yinggang, then director of China's Winter Games Management Center, said: This gold medal is both a miracle and the fairest result.
(Gold medal winner Bradberg)
Similar to Li Jianrou's luck in winning the Olympic gold medal in the final, the men's short track speed skater Steven Bradberg at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics can be called the most fortunate participant in Olympic history, as an amateur speed skater, he ranked last from the preliminaries to the final, but finally won the competition and won the Olympic championship of the 1000m speed skating men's group.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" >, an obscure amateur</h1>
Bradberg is an amateur ice sports player from the Australian city of Sydney, where ice sports are not popular due to the four seasons and warm climate. Prior to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Bradberg had represented Australia at three Winter Olympics, except for a bronze medal in norway's Lillehammer Collective 5,000m speed skating relay. In his personal events, he has never achieved anything, and three Winter Olympics have stopped at the preliminaries, either because of fouls and no results, or because of poor results at the bottom of the rankings.
(Short Track Speed Skating)
In addition to amateur training, Bradberg usually relies on the sale of ice and snow sports equipment on the Internet to survive, before the opening of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, he opened an ice and snow sports equipment store in his hometown, in order to expand business and store visibility, he decided to go to the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics site, through the competition to meet the American short track speed skating star Apollo, asked him to cut the ribbon for his store.
As for the game, Bradberg is very self-aware, knowing that with his own level, the preliminary round will be out of the bottom due to the ranking, so he has no luxury of reaching the final, let alone thinking about winning medals.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > two, the lucky one at the bottom of the preliminaries</h1>
After the opening of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, in the men's 1000m short track speed skating preliminaries, Bradberg was assigned to a group that can be described as a famous player, in addition to China's Li Jiajun, the defending champion South Korean Kim Dong-sheng, the outermost part of the slide, as well as The Japanese player Terao Bei, these people are in the forefront of the world in terms of competitive water level, are the favorite to win the short track speed skating field, only Bradberg, is considered to be to play soy sauce.
(Falling speed skater)
After the start of the preliminaries, Bradberg played steadily, unsurprisingly behind the other four players, in the final position, a kilometer track, the players had to speed skate on the ice for nine laps, and when the race went to the last lap, the competition entered a white-hot, at which point a dramatic scene occurred.
First Kim Dong-sung fell down while competing with Li Jiajun for a position, and then in the last corner, Li Jiajun and another Canadian player also met together, the two sides fell out of the ice, only the Japanese player Terao Bei who rushed to the front and Bradberg, who was originally in the last position, after the two crossed the finish line one after another, Terao was not excited, he thought he would successfully enter the final.
(Players who fell in the final)
However, after carefully watching the video, the referee believed that the last collision was caused by Terao Bei's foul first, so he cancelled Terao Bei's results, so that Bradberg became the first place in the group and entered the final with Li Jiajun who fell, while the defending champion Kim Dong-seung and the Japanese star Terao Bei were eliminated in the preliminaries.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > third, the god of luck is once again in favor</h1>
A few hours later, the speed skating 1000m final kicked off, bradberg's idol Apollo was also among the finalists, in the previous group stage, he had successfully advanced to the first place every time, the strongest popularity, became the popular candidate for the championship, and Bradberg, who reached the final by his opponent's fouls and falls, had no idea about the gold medal.
The gunfire of the final sounded, this time the competition was more intense, in the sixth lap, Apollo surpassed successfully from the outside and rushed to the front, followed by Li Jiajun, the other two players followed Li Jiajun, the four of you chased me, the scene was extremely tense. Look at Bradberg again, being thrown farther away, but he still has a relaxed expression and insists on playing with self-care.
(Bradberg successfully reached the finish line)
When there was only one last lap left in the race, Li Jiajun, who was in second place, took the lead in sprinting, Apollo and the other two runners did not show weakness, and the competition for the place entered a white-hot, but the dramatic scene happened again, due to the speed, in the last corner, the four runners who rushed to the front fell to the ground because of the collision, and Bradberg, who was only more than ten meters away, rushed to the finish line with surprise.
After the match, the referee ruled that because the fall of the four was caused by a normal collision and there was no foul action, Bradberg, the only one to rush to the finish line, became the first place in the final of the men's 1000-meter short track sprint and won the gold medal in the event of the winter Olympics.
The audience erupted in thunderous applause, no one thought that a player who had been ranked at the bottom from the preliminaries to the final could become an Olympic champion, and when the reporter interviewed Bradberg, he said happily that there was no need to ask Apollo to cut the ribbon for the ice and snow supply store, because he was the champion of this Olympic Games, and personally cutting the ribbon would be more influential.
(Bradberg, who won the game)
Bradberg, with the first Winter Olympic gold medal in Australian history, immediately became a hero and pride of the country, and he began to speak around, participate in reality TV shows, and has since embarked on the peak of his life. Some people attribute all this to luck, but although miracles often happen in sports, behind being favored by The Goddess of Luck for three consecutive times is the best reward for Bradberg's years of hard work and indisputable mentality, so this gold medal is really deserved for him.