Speed skater Steven Bradbury’s shock win at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games is now the stuff of legend. This clip from comedy series Australian Epic leans into the theatre, reframing the dramatic slip-and-slide moment as the climax of a musical.

A mashup reflects how we tell mythic stories time and time again: Bradbury’s triumph is shown through interviews, archival clips and a cinematic re-enactment where actors burst into song. Even with the drama of spotlights and slo-mo shots of tumbling skaters, the original footage of Bradbury’s bafflement still cuts through.

Bradbury’s underdog victory scored Australia its first gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games, after competing since 1936. It’s only natural that ‘the luckiest individual gold medallist in Olympic history’ is immortalised through a soaring ballad.

Australia Epic was a six-part ABC series that combined staged musical sequences and documentary to retell ‘Australia’s most defining stories’.