Former Rhodes University Sportsman of the Year, Bradley Stephenson has qualified to take part in the 2014 Winter Olympics which will be held in Sochi, Russia.
Former Rhodes University Sportsman of the Year, Bradley Stephenson has qualified to take part in the 2014 Winter Olympics which will be held in Sochi, Russia.
Stephenson qualified for the Olympics after finishing 30th in the FIS Freestyle World Champs freestyle skiing which took place in Deer Valley. In his first event on 2 February he finished 31st and improved by one position in his second and final event on 5 February. A top 30 place at a World Cup or World Championships sees the athlete qualifying for the Olympics.
The event, which saw 313 athletes from 36 nations competing in 12 events and around 8000 spectators attending the finals, took place in temperatures around minus 28°C. Stephenson came close to qualifying for last year's Olympics, but missed out due to not earning enough points from his various qualifying events.
Many people at the World Champs compared Stephenson's participation to the “Cool Runnings” movie, and were intrigued and supportive. Several people asked to have their photos taken with him, and some even asked him to autograph their ski jackets. Before the World Champs, he competed in two World Cup events at Lake Placid (22 and 23 January) where he finished 37th and 38th respectively.
His coach, Alex Heath was due to compete in the Ski Cross event but got concussed in a fall during a training session and was unable to take part. Although Stephenson had several falls during training, he was not (visibly) injured. The next World Champs takes place in Voss, Norway in 2013 and the next Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia in 2014.
