Roald Bradstock
Olympian Artist - Painting: PyeongChang 2018, Tokyo 2020
Olympic Games:
Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988
Athletics (javelin)
Olympic Strong
This piece is about the strength and power of the Olympic Movement and the Olympic ideals and values, and the Movement’s creativity in overcoming adversity, succeeding, and ultimately thriving.
The iconic and symbolic five interlocking Olympic rings are under attack from every angle, but they remain intact, unbroken, and strong – they are five rings, but one powerful, enduring symbol recognised around the world, representing the strength of an idea.
© 2021 – Roald Bradstock
The Race Against Time
In this painting, I turned the five Olympic rings into five figures running for the finish line. The race is on to get back to normal, to find a cure for the COVID-19 virus, to overcome the pandemic.
The postponed Tokyo 2020 Games, being held in 2021, are a historic and symbolic event. I made this piece colourful to reflect hope, joy, and optimism for the future, being respectful to the past and present but celebrating the future.
The Race Against Time is a symbolic image that captures this unique moment in human history and Olympic history. The Olympic Games celebrate life, youth, excellence.
They are about taking part, doing your best, reaching for the stars. They are about pushing yourself, going beyond the expected, raising the bar. In this painting, there can be no single winner. We are all individuals, yes, but to win this race we must work together collectively, put aside our differences and become one global community helping each other.
© 2021 - Roald Bradstock
Everything
I wanted to pay homage to some of the greatest athletes in javelin throwing history – my speciality – from the USA's former world record holder Al Cantello in the 1950s to the current world record holder, Jan Zelezny, and last year's world-leading thrower Johannes Vetter.
All three of these incredible athletes threw themselves into the air and onto the ground after they launched the javelin on their very best throws. They gave it ‘everything’ they had, held nothing back: great visual examples of the competitive Olympic spirit of determination, overcoming adversity, and pushing the envelope of what is possible and what we think is possible.
The painting is a visual representation of Olympic javelin history. The lines depict the colours of the national flags of the javelin gold medallists at each Olympic Games – going from left to right starting with Sweden's Eric Lemming's two wins in 1908 and 1912 (blue and yellow) and ending with Germany's Thomas Röhler in 2016 (black, red and gold).
© 2021 – Roald Bradstock
Herd Community
This painting symbolises the worldwide communal effort to overcome the pandemic, which requires hard work, collaboration, and community effort.
The road cyclists are coming at the viewer, pushing as hard as they can. They are individuals, but they are visually all connected to each other and within the confines of the rectangle (human race/planet). I chose road cyclists because they work in teams when they compete, not just as individuals.
The cyclists, seemingly floating in space, are not touching the ground. In this dark time in human history, when we are dealing with the unknown, I wanted to convey hope and optimism.
© 2021 – Roald Bradstock
Roald Bradstock is a two-time Olympic track and field athlete who competed at Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988, and is also a two-time Olympic artist, having been involved at Sydney 2000 and PyeongChang 2018.
He is a former javelin record holder and also holds dozens of other world records for throwing a variety of bizarre objects, from vinyl records and iPods to cricket balls and golf balls.
In 2000, he won the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) Sports Art Competition in the painting category with a piece entitled Struggle for Perfection. His painting went on to be exhibited at The Olympic Museum in Lausanne, as part of the cultural activities ahead of the Olympic Games Sydney 2000.
Roald was a member of the IOC Culture and Olympic Heritage Commission from 2017 to 2022. In 2018, he was appointed Chair of the newly formed World Olympians Association (WOA) Art Committee, called ‘OLY Arts’.
Q&A
I aspired to become an Olympian after watching the Mexico City 1968 Olympic Games at the age of six. It gave me purpose, direction and motivation throughout my athletic career and for the past quarter of a century, in my artistic career too. I think big – I always have – and there is nothing bigger in the sports world than the Olympics. I have always pushed the envelope both as an athlete and as an artist. I see myself as an ambassador for the ideals and values of the Olympic Movement and an example of what can be accomplished when you focus and work hard.
Being a true Olympian is a lifelong journey that begins when you become an Olympic athlete. Sure, you need to develop and focus on your body and your craft. But you also need to develop your mind and spirit. Some athletes do this intuitively; others have to learn it. But for me, that’s what really separates the Olympic Games from all other sports competitions. The Olympic Games capture the imagination. Pierre de Coubertin wanted to combine the two universal languages of sport and art to connect with and reach a global audience. Sports competitions can be easily measured and judged, for the most part. Culture, and especially Olympic culture, is more subjective; it is about ideas, philosophy, art, values. For me, ‘Olympic culture’ is about storytelling; drama that captures the imagination of the participants and the spectators. It’s about capturing moments in time with iconic photography, film, stories, history, music. But it is not separated from the sportsmen and women on the field of play as I used to think. Quite the contrary. Sport, art, culture, and creativity are so intertwined in the Olympics – sometimes it is difficult to see them separately.
Aim higher!
I remember being in the 1984 LA Olympics and being so excited just to be there and then to make it to the final. But I couldn’t get really motivated to push for a medal or to win. My lifelong goal had been met: to become an Olympian. I couldn’t just do a reset on the spot. I aimed too low!
All my life I have been an artist and an athlete – two seemingly polar opposite pursuits. Both require a lot of time and focus. Then 25 years ago I did some research about the Olympic Games and Pierre de Coubertin. I realised then that sport and art were not different but in fact the same. When I came to that realisation, everything changed for me. I saw everything differently. I saw the connections and similarities between sport and the arts. It changed my approach to my sport and training and also how and what I created in my art studio.
In my athletic career I have had to use my imagination and creativity to create, develop and modify my training programmes, techniques and exercises to overcome my weaknesses. I have pushed the ‘art’ of throwing the javelin and other objects to a new level, breaking dozens of official and very unofficial world records, capturing them all on video and then sharing online.
In my art career I use repetition of shapes and lines over sports-themed images to pay homage to the fact that athletic careers are all about repetition – repetition of movements to improve skill, strength, flexibility, coordination and dexterity.