Still standing: Steven Bradbury on grit, guts and giving things a go
From Olympic gold to beer and bravery, Steven Bradbury is living proof that having the guts to have a crack (again and again) can take you as far as you need to go.
By Bron Maxabella
Ask any Aussie what “doing a Bradbury” means, and you’ll get the same fond response: a twist of fate, a surprise win, a lucky twist of fate. But if you ask Olympic gold medallist and Citro ambassador Steven Bradbury himself, he’ll tell you that luck is only part of the story.
“I don't think I'll take the medal as the minute-and-a-half of the race I actually won,” Steven said after winning at Salt Lake City in 2002. “I'll take it as the last decade of the hard slog I put in.”
Now over 22 years since he stunned the world with Australia’s first ever Winter Olympics gold medal, Steven hasn’t slowed down. If anything, he’s hit the accelerator. Which is no surprise really when you consider that a boy from one of the hottest parts of the world skated his way to victory in one of the coldest.
Today, he’s not just the face of perseverance, he’s also the founder of Last Man Standing beer, a professional speaker with more than 1500 gigs under his belt, and a dad of 3 who still gets up each morning ready to give life another crack.
The long game of getting lucky
That’s because Steven is no stranger to reinvention. After Olympic speed skating, he dabbled in motor racing, took out the top spot on Dancing with the Stars, appeared on Survivor and built a motivational speaking business that now pays the bills.
But his latest chapter – launching an independent beer brand – is as gutsy as anything he’s ever done.
“We’re about 5 years old now,” he explains of Last Man Standing. “We knew we were getting into one of the most competitive marketplaces imaginable. The industry is so monopolised, you know, I think it’s a little bit un-Australian… 9 out of the 10 top-selling beers in Australia are owned by the Japanese… The only one that’s up near the top in the cellars that is Australian-owned is Cooper’s Pale Ale.”
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For Steven, this beer is more than just a beverage. It’s a tribute to his late friend Roy Prosser, a former Wallaby and beer lover who dreamed of having his own label. “We kept the conversation going for over a decade after Roy passed,” Steven says. “Eventually we decided to stop talking about it and start doing it.”
While the logo – a hare and tortoise – is a nod to Steven’s famous win, it’s so much more than that. “It’s a bit of a piss-take on myself,” he laughs, but it’s also about being sensible with your drinking. “So the idea is that you pace yourself and you don’t make a pissed idiot of yourself by going too hard too early. You just sip away and enjoy a cold beverage for the afternoon…”
Starting over (again and again)
So what drives a man like Steven Bradbury to keep trying new things, even in the face of steep odds?
“I’ve always been somebody who lives and dies by the sword,” he says. “I’ve got to put myself in a position where I’ve kind of taken the risk and I’ve gone too far to go back. Otherwise, I’m likely to say, oh, f*ck it, I’ll do it tomorrow.”
That’s the “pressure principle,” as Steven calls it: putting yourself in situations where you have no choice but to step up.
“If you put yourself in a position where you're past that point of no return, you've invested too much time and too much money into something, well, it's not a ‘risk’ anymore because you can't go back.”
And when things go sideways? You pivot.
“I got thrown in the deep end with [key-note speaking and motivational comedy] after winning gold… I probably drank too much, to be honest, for the first couple of years… and then I thought to myself, what happens if I do get really good at it? That’s when I started developing my keynote presentation, working with a comedian and a professional speechwriter and putting a team together.”
That hard work paid off. “[Now I can] deliver an hour keynote pretty much anywhere in the world and get a standing ovation, whether people know my story or they don’t,” he says simply. He’s also quick to point out that it took years of graft and being easy to work with that got him to that point.
““They realised that I was an easy bloke to work with, you know. I fly economy class. I drive my own rental car. I don’t come with any celebrity baggage. And I get amazing client feedback every time.”
Not all heroes wear skates
Bradbury’s grit isn’t reserved for business or sport either. Last year, he was awarded a Commendation for Brave Conduct from the Queensland Governor, Jeannette Young in recognition of his quick action and immense bravery in dangerous surf conditions at Caloundra in 2022.
“I spotted what I thought was a log. It was big waves, really, really wild conditions and I was teaching my son to surf on the reform, like right in near the shore where it was small,” he recalls.
Eventually he realised it wasn’t a log – it was someone’s head out the back in the lineup.
“I was like, well, whoever's out there shouldn't be out there,” he says with his characteristic understatement. “I got the surfboard off my son, I told him to run to the [lifeguard], and I paddled out.
“Her name was Zoe… she spotted me paddling towards her and the look on her face said, ‘Please help me, I’m going to die.’ I’d never seen a look like that before in my life.”
He got Zoe back to shore, then headed out again through 2-metre plus waves to get to the rest of the panicked girls. He pushed to his limits in pounding surf over and over, until finally his son returned from his race up the beach with the lifeguards.
“[It made me realise] even when I was less fit than I am now – when the pressure’s on, I can still go,” Steven says, though the incident did inspire him to lose a bit of weight.
Of course, he’s modest about the entire thing, as is his way. All he says is that it “was a good lesson for me to know that if there’s an emergency situation, I can go back into Olympic-run mode for a while and block everything else out.”
Lessons for the rest of us
Steven Bradbury’s story might have started with an unlikely Olympic win, but it’s what he’s done since that holds practical wisdom for anyone looking to start over – especially if you’re 50+ and wondering what’s next.
Here are 5 lessons from Bradbury’s life that might just inspire your next chapter:
1. Put yourself under a bit of pressure
“If there’s no pressure, it’s hard to drag your arse off the couch,” Steven says. “You know, start a business, write down goals, make yourself accountable.”
More on this: Why your 50s and 60s are the best time to start your new business
Whether it's building something new or simply setting a challenge, pressure creates movement.
2. Start with one different thing
“Just do one thing differently and see how it goes,” Steven advises. It doesn’t have to be big.
That shift – however small – can be the beginning of momentum. Fix one thing, and others often follow.
3. Get out of your comfort zone
“When you go out of your comfort zone and do things a little bit different than what you’ve [always] done before – when it works, you get that hit of adrenaline,” explains Steven. “You start to get a bit more of a positive mindset and you go searching for ways to find more of it.”
It might be improving your golf swing, signing up for a course, saying yes when you’d usually say no… it doesn’t matter what it is, just try a fresh way of doing things.
4. All-in gets results
Steven’s success hasn’t come from half-hearted efforts. “You’ve got to be all in,” he says. “That’s when you get the best out of yourself.”
Whether it's beer, speaking, or rescuing people from surf, Steven commits fully.
“You know, I’ve got 3 kids, and a lot of the time I want to go back into selfish Olympian mode, because you’ve got to be kind of selfish when you’re an Olympian – it’s all about you. But that’s not the case anymore.
“So, you know, I know there’s going to be time for me, but before that I’ve got to sort the kids – and I don’t get a f*cking trophy for it,” he laughs.
But it’s testament to the man that he is that his old “This is the Olympics, get up” sign has been replaced with one that says “Family first”. This guy doesn’t muck around.
5. It’s never too late
“If you stop doing, you start dying,” Steven says. “If you improve any area of your life, even if it’s your golf handicap, those things can rub off on to other areas of your life too.”
As Steven has demonstrated his entire life – that can happen at any age.
And yet, he’s not done. Far from it.
He’s currently raising capital for a larger scale brewery that’s open to the public. “We’ve got a location that we’re working on at the moment. I can’t say what it is or where it is just yet, but, yeah, in Brisbane. So hopefully within the next six months or so we’ve got that over the line.”
Because true to form, Steven Bradbury isn’t just about one incredible moment.
He’s about all the moments that come after it, with the courage to keep backing yourself, no matter how crowded the field or late in the game you feel like you are.
If you’re interested in coming on board as an investor in Last Man Standing, email Steven direct at: Steven@stevenbradbury.com. Or come on down to the Last Man Standing sports brewpub across the road from SunCorp Stadium in Brisbane – “Let Bradbury pour your the best lager you’ve ever tasted!”
Feature image: Courtesy of Steven Bradbury
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