It's not like short track speedskater Steven Bradbury to avoid trouble but he did on Saturday and it resulted in Australia's first ever Winter Olympics gold medal.
Having been involved in his share of crashes and with the scars to prove it -- including 111 stitches in a wound in 1994 - Bradbury steered well clear of the mayhem during the 1,000 metres final.
He cruised past the carnage, hands raised in triumph to claim victory and place in Australian Olympic history.
In a wild night that clearly illustrated why short track is described as roller derby on ice, American sensation Apolo Anton Ohno had appeared headed for what was expected to be the first of four gold medals when he became entangled with China's Li Jiajun entering the final corner.
The two skaters lost control, taking down Canada's Mathieu Turcotte and South Korea's Ahn Hyun-Soo in the process.
By the time Bradbury reached the pileup all he had to do was negotiate the four bodies sprawled across the Olympic centre ice to claim the win.
"I just saw a lot of skaters close together, I don't exactly know what happened," said Bradbury. "I just saw them all on the ice and said, 'hang on, this can't be right...I think I won'.