AT Beijing, the curtain has fallen on the short-track. As much, from the outset, to make it as short as the track on which the gladiators of the ice evolve. In sport, as in life, what could be better than a Bradbury? In other words to know the consecration when, on paper, nobody would dare to bet a single penny on you. A surreal scenario worthy of the Martian chronicles born from the imagination of Ray Bradbury, an illustrious namesake.
But a little backtracking is in order. 20 years ago almost to the day, on February 16, on the ice rink of the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, a modest short-track speed skater, Steven Bradbury, pulled off the heist of the century in the 1,000 meter final. In reality, the 29-year-old Australian skater should never have gone beyond the quarter-finals. Eliminated on a regular basis, he only gets his ticket for the next round thanks to the disqualification of an opponent for illicit contact. In the semi-final, overtaken by the pace of the race, the Australian seemed condemned to finish last when the three athletes in front of him collided on the ice ring.
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Gold medal in 2022
The story could end there. In the final, faithful to his tactics, Bradbury, at the back of the pack, left the favorites to fight, in particular the South Korean Ahn Hyun-soo and the American Apolo Ohno. In the final sprint, the unthinkable happens: all his opponents fall one after the other and Bradbury, sheltered from the chaos, crosses the finish line as the winner. In Australia, this gold medal, the first won by the country at the Winter Olympics, is still remembered and the expression “Making a bradbury” is widely used in everyday language.
Around the world, the video of the race quickly went viral. The journey of the Australian skater at the 2002 Olympics can be seen as a metaphor for life. The growing success of the short-track can indeed be explained by the uncertainty and the multiplication of pitfalls, like series broadcast on television at prime time. The proposed show fits perfectly with the expectations and vagaries of the time. The first world championships took place in 1981 in Meudon-la-Forêt and the discipline only joined the Olympic fold in 1992, in Albertville.
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Skaters setting off on a 111-meter oval ring must negotiate ultra-tight turns up to 40 degrees. Embarked at nearly 70 km / h in a centrifuge, they jostle and often end up being ejected against the railings. When the race ends, another begins, less nervous but much more thorough. By watching the replays at their disposal for a long time, the judges keep the audience spellbound. After an interminable wait, behavior deemed unsportsmanlike is sanctioned by disqualification.
The discipline of all passions
Since the Turin Games in 2006, VAR (video assistance) has been an integral part of this show on ice. It is even considered as an additional pepper, and not as a pensum. Four years earlier, in Salt Lake City, in the final of the 1,500 meters, the Korean star Kim Dong-sung had been disqualified with the naked eye. The green carpet victory of American Apolo Ohno had sparked a wave of anti-American hatred in Korea unprecedented since the war. Become persona non grata in the country, Ohno had suffered insults and death threats. A local company had marketed toilet paper bearing his image and a popular video game was to virtually kill the athlete. By now acting as justice of the peace, the VAR opportunely reminds nationalists of all stripes that sport is not war.