Brad Scott

3-Time Australian Paralympic Middle Distance Runner - Road to Rio Ep. #1
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Background:Brad Scott is a world class Paralympic middle distance runner who was born with cerebral palsy. He was discovered as a teenager by talent scouts who identified his tremendous running ability. This led to a full scholarship with the Australian Institute of Sport.
By the age of 20, he was at the start line representing Australia at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing with 90,000 people packed into the stadium. His silver medal games debut performance was only to be the beginning of a prolific career at international level. Brad continued with more medals at London 2012. However, one thing continues to fuel the flame, it’s his hunger to claim the elusive 1500m gold in Rio.
Brad provides detailed insight into his current preparations, the challenges and motivations to succeed. It’s a compelling glimpse into the life of a fully committed athlete aiming for the top.
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Full Transcript

This was transcribed and therefore might contain a few typos. With some long episodes, it's difficult to catch some minor errors. Enjoy!

Abid Imam: Brad, welcome to the show. First of all, how and where did it all begin for you? Brad Scott: Mate, firstly thanks for having me. For myself, honestly it all began playing footy. I ended up loving my football. I was very unfit though and somehow my teammates named me captain. Now, we went on to lose a fair few games in a row and I felt like I was a bit of the responsibility for that, I took a bit of the blame. So, I knew being unfit I had to change something, so I started to run laps of the oval. When I started out, I couldn’t even finish one lap. It literally took me about 2 minutes and 30 seconds to run about 450m. And after that I said this is ridiculous, I can’t be leader of a team and I can’t do this when I am even 16 years old, I can’t be this bad of a runner. So, I just started running laps, one after another. I went day after day and did one lap more each day to the stage where I got to 20-25 laps. Then someone said to me ‘hey Brad, you’re not too bad at running!’. He said go and talk to this guy, he’ll get you involved in it more. His name was Dave and he started coaching me a bit and from there I did a few sessions and then luckily, the Australian Paralympic Committee put on what they call a talent search day. This was in Bunbury, down south, this is still the only one they’ve done down there. They picked me up there. This is 2006 in June. I didn’t know what Paralympic sport was back then. My dad literally forced me to go along to this Paralympic talent search day. I ended up breaking their beep test record and doing a few of their sprinting records. Yeah, I guess the rest you can say is history. I moved to Canberra 6 months after that and got a full scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport.
Abid Imam: You mentioned your dad there briefly, what role did your parents have in cultivating your love for sport? or was it more nature vs nurture? Brad Scott: See, the funny thing is I don’t think it’s directly involved in my sport, it’s in my overall life. Being someone born with a disability, there are a few limitations that can be placed on you very early on. Now, my parents firstly didn’t let me use my disability as an excuse, they didn’t treat me any differently to the way they treated my brothers, Matthew and Corey. They are both younger brothers. They gave me every opportunity, whether that was in sport or that was anything that I wanted to do. My dad was happy it was sport because my dad is the most passionate Dockers supporter that I’ve ever met for one! Any sport we wanted to play, they would support as much as they could. I think what helped me out the most, was not only my parents but my two younger brothers, because there’s only two years between the 3 of us, we were so competitive. So even against my younger brothers, I could never back off. I could never be that one to let them win. So, I grew up being a good runner, Matt grew up being a good football player and Corey grew up being a good golfer so in different sports we’re always pushing each other. I think it’s not just the mum and dad, I think it’s the family dynamic in a whole. Again, there were no excuses in my family. It was all about opportunities.
Abid Imam: What kids of obstacles have you faced to be an athlete, what are the biggest obstacles?
Brad Scott: I guess it’s different for many athletes, but I think there’s so many similarities. For myself, It was a belief I could actually do this, like when I first started getting involved in athletics and I moved to Canberra to the Australian Institute of Sport, I had breakfast with James Tomkins who was a member of the Oarsome Foursome, one of the gold medallist rowers, the very first day I was there and I was like ‘this isn’t right’, I don’t belong here. These guys are amazing athletes. I didn’t believe that I belonged there. So the hardest obstacle for me to face in the beginning was the belief that I actually deserved to be where I was. Once I overcame that, which took a little while, I guess the next obstacle was me being different to everyone else. Me being individual. I used to get caught up in the crowd and what everyone else is doing. The I realised that I myself am a unique person, so what someone else can do doesn’t mean I can do the same thing. I would go out and watch movies and come back with them and stuff like that but then I would find I wouldn’t train as well. They would train amazingly and that would be the issue. I would follow everyone else and follow all in their footsteps, but I would not be able to back it up. They might, just like I might be able to do one thing and they couldn’t do that and then follow it up with a good training session. It took me a while to realise that one of my biggest obstacles was not following the crowd. It was sticking true to myself and doing what I knew was best for me.
Abid Imam: You’re deeply involved as a Paralympian. For some of us who aren’t well acquainted with it, how does the classification system work? Can you give us a bit of an overview of Paralympic competition?
Brad Scott: Definitely. There’s many different classifications in Paralympics. We’ll talk about track & field here. There’s what you would call the T and the F’s. T stands for Track and the F stands for Field. Now depending on what type of disability you have and what severity of that disability, you will get given 2 numbers. In the 10’s, so classes 11, 12 and 13 are visually impaired. The 20’s are intellectually disabled. Cerebral Palsy, like myself, are in the 30’s. This goes from 33 to 38. I am what you call a 37, I’ll get into that shortly. Then in your 40’s you have your amputees, then in the 50’s you have your spinal injuries.Your disability would determine what class you’d be put in. For myself, being a 37, means that I have hemiplegia. Hemiplegia is Cerebral Palsy on one side of your body, whether it’s left or your right. For myself, I have right hemiplegia, so my right arm and my right leg are predominantly affected. Which I am sure you can imagine, greatly affects me on the track.
Abid Imam: Your T37 classification, what are some of the nuances of that in terms of how you compete and what are the challenges of the T37?
Brad Scott: Well, the one that we identified pretty quickly was that I was a lot weaker on my right side when I first moved to Canberra. It’s hard to gauge this, but I would have been about 60-65% of the strength of my good side, so there’s a lot of weakness there. The first thing we had to do was try to balance it out, so I spent a lot of time in the gym doing a lot of stability and control exercises. Now it’s 90-95% of the strength and control which is great, not many CP athletes can say that, however, when I run I still put 60-65% of the loading through the good side of my body which happens to be on the inside of the track. That is an issue because the good side of my body is now doing 1.5 times the work that it needs to do. It’s almost like comparing a person on a motorcycle or a quadbike to now being on a motorbike with a sidecar. My right side is like the sidecar going along for the show but it’s not generating any of the energy to help you propel forward. My good side is doing all the work and taking the load of my right side as well, so that’s probably the biggest issue. Being able to adapt to my disability, but not overloading my good side.
Abid Imam: Very interesting. In terms of us fast forwarding a little bit and going to Beijing for the 2008 Paralympic Games and London 2012. How do you reflect on those experiences now? Brad Scott: Well, it’s pretty amazing. To think that only 18 months before Beijing was when I went to the AIS and started training. Now, I never thought I would really compete for my country, in any sport. I had the aspiration to. I wanted to play cricket for Australia, I wanted to play AFL, but never thought athletics would ever be that way. To run in front of 90,000 people in the 800m in Beijing was absolutely amazing and then to stand on that dais and receive a medal. It’s definitely a feeling that you’ll never forget and it’s one of those things that could can’t really share it with anyone. Those photos, videos, everything that happens, you can’t recreate that because of the energy of that moment. Fast forward to London, that was a completely different experience. The energy in that crowd was completely different to Beijing. They know athletics really well in Europe. When it deserved the roar, it would be so loud, but when it deserved silence, they were so quiet. Where Beijing was just a constant roar. That was, I think, the real defining thing about London, and not only that but I got to share my medal ceremony with my parents. They snuck in to the media area and they were directly in front of me when I received my medal for the 1500m in London. That was pretty amazing.
Abid Imam: That’s rewarding, that sounds great. Having gone to 2 Paralympics now how does that helps you in your preparation what advantage does it give you heading towards Rio now?
Brad Scott: Firstly, like I mentioned before, now I know I belong. I know the Paralympics is where I deserve to be. I’ve earnt my spot, so it gives me the confidence not only being and experiencing those but knowing that this is my place. I’ve earnt this and I am there. As much as I know there’s people that want to go just for the experience. I am no longer going for the experience. As amazing as I am sure it will be, I am going to do the best race that I can. Whether that is winning a gold or not, this will probably be my last Paralympic Games. It might not, but I presume it probably will be. I want to make sure I do the best race I can and leave that race out there on the track.
Abid Imam: You compete in the 800m and 1500m, that’s what you’ve done in those Games. In middle distance you always hear about races being very tactical so what sort of considerations go through your mind when you’re in the heat of battle?
Brad Scott: Yeah, that’s a great question. In Rio, I am only going to be focussing on one event, that’s the 1500m because they’ve removed the 800m from the program. Now the 1500m in itself, it’s one of those interesting races. Especially in my class, if you’ve watched any of the races that I’ve been involved in internationally, I’ve led the field pretty much from the gun and then athletes gauge their race off from me. This only hit me recently when I went to Doha for the World Champs last year. I deliberately was going to sit mid pack which I’ve never done, but when I tried to slow up, everyone slowed up right behind me. Everyone dictates their race off from me. It made me realise I’ve got a lot of power in these races, people look at me before they look at anyone else. Yes, Michael MacKillop has won the gold medal at every one of those competitions, but he himself gauges what he does in the race off from what I do in the beginning. It tells me that I have a lot of control there. I can be very tactical in my approach, whether I want to go out hard, but I don’t want to give him that belief that he can go and do what he does every time, which is just sit behind me, kick and destroy me. It’s not going to happen in Rio. He’s going to think it will, but it won’t. I’ve got a plan, I am not going to tell you all the things we are working on but again it’s not about him, it’s about what I am putting out there. I know what I am in control of, but I’ve got to make myself adaptable to whatever those racing situations are. Many athletes we see, especially in the junior categories, their very one-dimensional with their racing tactics. If someone else somehow blocks them or gets in their way, or they don’t do what they are expecting of them, that destroys their own race. We have so many people that say they are going to pace out this race behind this person, expecting them to go at PB shape or whatever it is. Let’s say that person has a bad day and doesn’t go so well, yet you’re still gauging your race off that person. I’ve got the belief to know what I must do as a runner and what I need to do so I am not gauging off any other person. I am willing to adapt if that moment arises.
Abid Imam: You mentioned Michael MacKillop there, so he’s from Ireland. He’s the gentleman who has won Gold. Brad Scott: Everytime, everytime. I think I was doing the counting the other day. I think I’ve got 5 silvers and 1 bronze all from Michael MacKillop. Abid Imam: Right, so is it a friendly rivalry or one where you’ve just had enough of getting that silver? Brad Scott: Yeah, I am definitely over being the bridesmaid. It’s like footy or anything like that as well, it’s white line fever. I am good mates with him outside of the track, but on the track, I definitely don’t want to see him, I want him to be behind me. I think if you go into this sport trying to make enemies you’re going to regret it later anyway. So, I am there to make friends, but once I am on the track I am friends with no one, I am there for myself and myself alone. After that I’ll share that moment, that situation, whatever happens with everyone else.
Abid Imam: So understandably you must be training hard, very motivated. Can you walk us through a gruelling training week for you in the peak of your preparations for a major championships? Brad Scott: I guess the first part of the week is waking up in the morning. Sometimes that’s the hardest part, but as any athlete would understand that’s also the first question you ask of yourself on any day. Because that question you say, do I want to get out of bed, that’s going to determine what energy you’re going to put in for the rest of the day I believe.
Starting with getting up. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings I’ll probably go for a 10km run. Tuesday and Thursday afternoon is really where I get in and do the hard yards in terms of the intensity. On Tuesday, there’s definitely a heavy focus on drills and plyometrics and stuff like that because even though I am a middle-distance runner, you still need good strength, stability and control. We’ll do a lot of that, then Thursday is where I really tap into that lactic work or a really heavy session. On Saturdays, I’ll do more of a threshold run, whether that would be a 5, 6, 7km say at 3:15 or 3:20 pace per km. Sunday will either be a recovery, if I’ve done a really good week, I’ll probably be able to knock out another 5km on Sunday, just to see how the legs are feeling, but if I’ve had a bad week I’ll probably have Sunday off, to let the body recover. I think that’s the opposite to what a lot of athletes do. If they train badly, they feel like they need to train more, whereas if I am training badly, for example I am having a heavy week and we know that I am sort of hitting the wall there’s no point me going out and trying to do another run. It’s better to give my body the recovery, what it needs and then hit the next week fresh. Abid Imam: What sort of environments do you train in, because you are involved with the WA Institute of Sport. I would assume it’s a lot of track work, do you ever mix things up? What’s it like in your training environment?
Brad Scott: Definitely. Mixing things up is definitely the way I think any athlete needs to go about it. I do a lot of my stuff on grass. But, again the feeling on grass to the track is completely different, whether you’re in spikes or in flats. In the off-season, rarely would I use spikes. It’s that specificity, once you’re in racing season you need to be in spikes. You need to be able to understand the feel, to understand how the spikes feel on Mondo. The response that you get from that. In the off-season, I’ll do a lot just in my joggers. It’ll be a lot on grass, gravel, potentially some on road as well. But, I find the impact on road can be kind of detrimental because, if I want to get those km’s out, I probably need a bit more of a softer surface so the gravel and the grass is good, however the response, you do put a lot more loading through you’re calves and everything on the grass because it takes more time to get your foot off obviously.
We do mix things up. I do a bit in the pool if my coach forces me. I am not a fan of swimming, but I understand the benefits of it. There’s a lot in the gym that I do. I do a lot of work in the gym. It’s not really lifting weights. It’s the stability, the control, building that strength up, especially on my right side so when it doesn’t come to the races and stuff like that I can handle that fatigue because, as we’ve seen in the past, most of the athletes that win a race aren’t the athletes that are the fastest, they are the athletes with the most control, that control that fatigue and don’t let that lactic acid absolutely destroy them. That’s the thing, if I can control the way that I run under fatigue, it will really determine what result I put out there on the track.
Abid Imam: You alluded to your coach there, tell us a little bit about team Brad Scott. Who are the people behind the scenes who make it happen?
Brad Scott: Well that’s the thing, I’ve got a bloody big team behind me and there are many different elements to an athlete as I am sure you’re aware. It’s not just the coach directly, as you said before, it’s about the parents, it’s about the family. I’ve got a coach named Sebastian Kuzminski, he’s from Poland. We’ve only been working together for three or so months, but he is amazing. This guy lives and breathes athletics. I find that the best coaches are the ones who love the sport so much that they couldn’t really tap it into the elite side of the sport, but they wanted to be involved still so they thought, you know what, if I can’t do it, I am going to teach it.
I was taught early on that every coach has eyes, but not every coach can see. Now, he can not only see what I am doing wrong, what I need improving on or what I am doing right, he also knows how to help correct that. I think these are things a lot of athletes miss in coaches. Some coaches will just be looking at the stop watch or looking at distance to gauge whether they are training well or not, with Sebastian it’s much more than that. It’s about the technique, it’s about the flow. So, he’s the direct contact I have with the running.
Aside from that, the West Australian Institute of Sport is amazing. They gave me all those other elements, whether it’s physio, the rehab, the recovery, the gym for example, nutritionists, dietitians. There are so many people that help me day-in, day-out, it’s amazing. Psychologists are a big part, because as we know, it’s predominantly in your head. Your body can do amazing things, but if your head isn’t right, it doesn’t matter.
It goes back to my parents though. If my parents didn’t instil in me that my disability isn’t an excuse, it’s an opportunity, none of this would really be happening.
Abid Imam: I assume you have a professional career as well as athletics. How do you maintain that balance because I understand it’s a big challenge for all of our top athletes around the country?
Brad Scott: Oh definitely. You want to create something that you can transition into after your life in sport. And almost you want something to sometimes side track you to distract you from the day in, day out tedious tasks of training. See, for myself, I am a mortgage broker. So, I help people either buy a home or the home that they currently have to get it better refinanced. In that, however, I don’t really look at it as a balance personally. I look at it as constant counter balance because I feel like if everything is in balance, as soon as one thing loses control, everything is gone. So, I think it’s about your ability to be able to handle everything going on at the same time. So, it’s almost adjusting constantly. When I talk about a race for example, I am in control of my race, but if something else happens in that race, if the dynamic shifts, I can control my reaction to that and my next action. But, if I am like, this is a set way. This has to be this many hours a week, this has got to be here, this has got to be here. If something slips up, it throws everything else out. I’ve got to be adaptable to be able to react to that. That’s why I look at it as more counter balancing as opposed to everything being in constant balance.
Abid Imam: Great way of looking at it, I like that. So, what are the milestones you’ll be counter balancing on the way to Rio in the next couple of months. What are the big things?
Brad Scott: Well, there’s been a fair few things that have changed my life recently. I’ve recently become a father.
Abid Imam: Congrats!
Brad Scott: Thank you very much. I’ve got a four-month-old boy, Ryan. He’s amazing. That’s going to be a task in itself. Especially leading into Rio, but beyond that obviously the other things are more making sure that I am doing everything that I truly can to ensure that what I put out on the track in Rio is going to be the best effort that I have. I don’t want to be looking back on this experience going, I should have done this, I should have done that. I’d rather go, why did I do that? Why did I do this? I guess it’s just leaving no stone unturned because this might be my last shot. The milestones really would be each week going through and making sure that I am actually present in those training sessions in any element that needs my attention for the benefit of my sport, or for my performance I should say.
If I, for any second, let myself just wander off, be at training but not be present in that situation, that could have a huge impact on my performance in Rio. Ticking the boxes is a term a lot of people use, but I find that can be an auto-pilot response. Ticking the box is just being there, but I don’t just want to be there, I want to be there constantly pushing myself. That’s how you become a professional at something.
Driving a car, for example, is a good way to put it. We go from A to B, but the more times we do it, it becomes so easy we don’t really remember the journey. We just get from one place to another. Training is a lot like that, but I feel like the ones that improve, the ones that get the huge progression. Yes, they’re going from A to B, but every step of the way they know exactly what they’re doing. They’re present in every one of those moments. That’s what I have to make sure that I am because that’s how you do get better. How you do become a professional. Abid Imam: So, will your new arrival be one of the special guests in Rio to watch you possibly?
Brad Scott: Oh potentially, yeah that would be amazing. Maybe personally, I don’t know how I’d handle that because I haven’t had that experience before and I’ve never had a competition with him being in this world. It would be an interesting thing. I would have to put a bit more thought into that I think.
Abid Imam: That’s a gold medal right there anyway, so well done! How can people reach out to you and follow your journey?
Brad Scott: Like anyone these days, I have all of the social media handles. I’ve recently started up a website and doing a little bit of personal branding I guess you’d say. In Bunbury, my hometown, everyone knows me as Red. When I was playing football and when I was captain of the team, in the budget (match day programme) it didn’t say Brad Scott captain, it said, Red Scott captain. Half the people didn’t know my name was Brad. They knew me as Red.
Abid Imam: How did that come about?
Brad Scott: The red hair mate, I think (laughs). The red hair helped. The website itself is runred.com.au. My Instagram, facebook and everything is pretty much RunRedAU.My facebook page is Brad Scott Athlete to differentiate myself from Brad Scott the North Melbourne coach.
Abid Imam: We’ll be sure to put all those social media links in the show notes for sure. So, do you know how to say thank you in Portuguese, Brasilian Portuguese?
Brad Scott: I would not have a clue mate.
Abid Imam: It’s Obrigado!
Brad Scott: Obrigado!
Abid Imam: So that’s what I’ve gotta say to you now, Obrigado for your time. All the very best on the road to Rio Brad!
Brad Scott: Mate, thank you so much. I really appreciate it!







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