Olympic gold medallist short-track speed skater — Salt Lake City 2002 — on persistence, preparation and being there when chance arrives.
Steven Bradbury became Australia's first Winter Olympic gold medallist at Salt Lake City in 2002 in one of the most-watched and most-told sporting moments in the country's history. What's often missed is the decade and a half of preparation behind it — multiple Olympic campaigns, life-threatening injuries, near-quitting moments and the long unglamorous discipline of staying ready for an opportunity that almost didn't come.
His speaking is warm, well-paced and refreshingly honest about the years before the moment everyone remembers. The 'last-man-standing' framing is a useful entry point, but the substantive content is about persistence, preparation and what it actually takes to still be in the race when the moment arrives.
For event organisers, Steven is a strong fit for sales kickoffs, leadership programs, sporting events and in-house audiences where the brief is to lift the room with a credible voice on persistence and preparation paired with one of the country's most recognised sporting stories.
Steven Bradbury OAM is a keynote speaker based in Queensland who speaks on inspiration, motivation and sport. Book through Executive Speakers Australia.
* Positive mindset
Fuelling your body to keep your mind switched ON. Meaning not showing up for work hungover from the night before or having eaten McDonalds all week. This puts you and your work mates at greater risk. We all have tough days at work but if you tell yourself enough times, today will be a good day, you start to believe it. Negativity breeds quickly. There is no reason to focus on things you can’t control. Break the negativity cycle by developing 'Triggers' to switch the positivity back ON.
One trigger Steven Bradbury used during his skating career was a sign on the ceiling that read ‘this is the Olympics get up’. It's the first thing he saw every morning when his alarm went off at 430am. He knew if he didn't get up and got beaten at the Olympics that he’d regret it. What Trigger can you develop to keep your mind switched on to positive? No Regrets!
* Teamwork
The ‘jack of all trades’ doesn't really exist anymore. You need to become expert at your role and rely on your teammates/workmates to execute their role properly as well. A team is only as good as its weakest link.
* Experience and judgement
Rules, guidelines and procedures are in place for a reason. Usually because somebody in the past has cut a corner to save a little bit of time to clock off 15 minutes earlier, resulting in accident, injury or even death. Most Aussies gain experience and judgement by learning from their mistakes and then getting it right. The consequences of this attitude in the workplace can be dire.
The best way to get experience and judgement is to listen and learn from those who have been doing what your doing for a lot longer than you (normally your superiors). Short term gain = Long term pain.
Communication with Steven was fantastic. Steven was extremely personable and took the time to tailor his presentation around our event theme.Compass Group
Steven was hugely entertaining, a big hit with our staff and special guests. We greatly appreciated the opportunity to meet Steven in person.Consolidated Power Projects
Steven Bradbury was OUTSTANDING at our APAC conference in Singapore and was the highlight of our event. He established a great connection with all of our delegates, had time to talk with everyone after his presentation and was engaging, funny and insightful in his delivery. We will definitely look to engage his services again in future and can highly recommend him.Polytan
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