Steve Bradbury to the rescue! Olympic champ turns hero
Winter Olympic speed-skating legend Steve Bradbury has spoken up about the insane moment he jumped into a ferocious rip to save four teenage girls over the weekend.
Bradbury was out surfing with his 12-year-old son Flyn at an unpatrolled beach near Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast when he spotted a girl struggling in massive two-metre waves.
Without a second thought, the 48-year-old jumped into rescue mode. He told Flyn to hand him his board and swim back to shore and find the lifesavers.
"I knew that there was nobody else around to do the job and it was just one of those moments where the adrenaline started firing straight away,” he told Nine News.
Bradbury started making his way to the girl, Zoe, but was shocked to find three others with her.
The terrified look on Zoe's face is something Bradbury said he “can’t unsee”. He yanked her out of the water and onto the board, remembering the three others.
The huge rip made the rescue mission more difficult, to the point where Bradbury thought “they’re going to drown soon”.
"We were just getting pounded, wave after wave after wave. When the biggest waves hit us they all got knocked off the board every time.”
On shore, Flyn managed to find lifesavers some 800m from where the girls were drowning.
The lifesavers immediately grabbed the boat and made their way to Bradbury and the girls.
Zoe was placed on oxygen as she struggled to breathe and talk, while her friend Eva described the ordeal as “scary”, thinking she was going to die.
Bradbury took the opportunity to remind beachgoers to stay on patrolled beaches and to swim between the flags.
"The lifesavers are there for a reason and those flags are there for a reason and those girls shouldn't have been swimming there.”
Image: Nine News