Dale BEGG-SMITH

Dale Begg-Smith was born in Vancouver, on the Pacific coast of Canada. He learnt to ski in Whistler at the age of four. This talented young athlete very quickly knew what he wanted to do: become an entrepreneur and an Olympic champion. With his older brother, Jason, he left Canada for Australia in order to pursue their double goal of becoming elite athletes and businessmen. In Australia, they found the ideal conditions for developing both athletically and professionally.

Success begets success

Dale Begg-Smith’s first World Cup season began in 2001. Four years later, he achieved his first podium finish, with his first win on the circuit coming just three months before the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin. The Begg-Smith brothers entered the Games in the freestyle skiing moguls event. While the elder brother, Jason, was eliminated in the heats, his younger brother produced an almost perfect performance right through to the final. In his last run, Dale Begg-Smith first pulled off the perilous back-flip iron cross, then an off-axis D-spin 720 for his second jump. Backed up by his speed and style, these were enough to earn the Australian the score of 26.77 points and the title of Olympic champion.

This Games success led to many others, with Dale Begg-Smith winning the World Cup general ranking three times in a row between 2006 and 2008, and the World Championship in 2007. Unfortunately, a knee injury ended his 2009 season, but the Olympic champion was ready to try anything to come back even stronger the following year.

Silver in Vancouver

Back in his native city for the Olympic Games in February 2010, the pressure on Dale Begg-Smith was enormous. In fourth place after the qualifying rounds, he had his work cut out to overtake his rivals. In the final run, his performance was perfect: fluid, fast and technical. He produced the same combination of jumps as four years previously. While his performance was superb, it was not enough to win him the gold medal. Narrowly beaten by Alexandre Bilodeau, who offered Canada its first gold medal of the Games, Dale Begg-Smith had to be satisfied with silver.

With gold and silver medals, the Australian moguls specialist has achieved his sporting goal. Now he can settle down to advancing his business career.