Winter Olympic champion Steven Bradbury has helped save the lives of four teenage girls after they got into trouble swimming.
Mr Bradbury made the rescue while surfing with his son Flyn, 12, near Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast on Saturday afternoon.
The pair described how a sudden rip quickly compounded with “crazy” two-metre waves and caused chaos for swimmers.
“As I turned around, I spotted what I thought was a head out in the impact zone where the two-metre waves were breaking,” he told Nine News
“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.”
Mr Bradbury went on to describe how he took on thxjmtzywe rescue thinking only one young swimmer was in distress – not four.
“(I later thought) here’s three more girls out there that need saving, they’re gonna drown soon, I need help,” he said.
“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.”
He was soon joined by lifeguards, flagged down by Flyn, who helped bring the teenagers to shore.
One of the girls briefly needed oxygen while another said she would have died without the rescue effort.
It’s believed the group were swimming in an unpatrolled section of the beach, far from lifesavers’ flags.
Speed skater Mr Bradbury first found fame when he won Australia’s first Olympic medal after all of his opponents fell in the 2002 final.
A keen surfer, he now lives in Queensland and works as a motivational speaker.
