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| Dale Begg-Smith - Mogul Skiing |
Bio
Dale Begg-Smith: Injury ends winning World Cup streak
Dale Begg-Smith’s remarkable run of three straight World Cup titles came to an end on the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic course in Deer Valley at the end of January, the Torino gold medallist suffering a knee injury that also ended his season.
The 23-year-old AIS skier had qualified in fifth place in the Utah dual moguls event, then won through in his first round of the finals before twisting his right knee as he went into the top jump in his quarter final round.
Begg-Smith had started the 2008/09 season as one of the favourites to not only win his fourth straight World Cup title, but also claim the biennial World Championship crown in Inawashiro, Japan.
He had finished in sixth place in the Deer Valley single moguls earlier in the weekend, after posting a tenth placing in dual moguls at the opening event of the season in Meribel, Frane, and a fifth in Mont Gabriel, Canada.
Background
Dale Begg-Smith put his name into the record books of mogul skiing in the 2007/08 season, winning his third straight World Cup title.
Only one other skier in the history of the sport – French legend Edgar Grospiron - has ever won three consecutive World Cup titles and also held the Olympic crown at the same time.
Begg-Smith collected three gold and two silver medals during the season, taking his career tally of victories to 15.
The year before, he had collected six World Cup victories on the way to his second straight World Cup title, and added the World Championship dual moguls crown and the single moguls silver medal to his trophy cabinet.
In that 2006/07 season, Begg-Smith collected seven victories and two other podiums from the 12 events he contested during the season, a remarkable record of consistency.
He also became the first male moguls skier to go on to win the World Cup title in the season following Olympic success.
In Torino, Dale Begg-Smith had become the first Australian male to win an Olympic Winter Games skiing gold medal, producing close to perfect runs in the elimination round and final of the moguls to eclipse a star-studded field.
In one of the most competitive events at the Games, he defeated the 2005 World Cup champion Jeremy Bloom, the Salt Lake 2002 gold medallist and Nagano 1998 silver medallist Janne Lahtela and the Salt Lake 2002 silver medallist Travis Mayer, as well as a brace of other very strong contenders.
And he did it in style, receiving a remarkable 14.5 points out of a possible 15 for his turns, 0.70 more than any of his competitors, and at the same time ranking top three in air points and top four in speed.
Following the Games, he went on to confirm his status as the world's pre-eminent moguls skier by capturing the World Cup title, adding two victories in post-Torino events to the four he had won in the lead-up to Torino.
Begg-Smith had made his first impact as a mogul skierin January 2001 in Sunday River, skiing for Canada, when he finish in 18th place in the World Cup when he was just ten days past his 16th birthday.
After several years off the circuit, he and his older brother Jason took Australian citizenship in order to resume their World Cup careers under the tutelage of OWI moguls skiing coach Steve Desovich.
In his first year skiing for Australia, the 2003/04 season, Dale Begg-Smith gave plenty of indications that he had the ability to be on a World Cup podium before too long.
In his third event, in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, he made his first top ten placing, finishing seventh. He claimed another top ten with a sixth placing in Deer Valley, Utah, on the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic course, and by the end of the 2004 tour had collected four other top 20 placings.
Begg-Smith finished the season in 18th place on the World Cup standings, the leading Australian by one spot from team-mate Michael Robertson.
The following season, 2004/05, he made everyone sit up and take notice, moving to the world’s number two ranking, and also making the podium in the World Freestyle Skiing Championships.
He started that 2004/05 season strongly, placing sixth in the opening World Cup event in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. In the following two events - in Mont Tremblant and Lake Placid - he missed a place in the final by two spots, finishing in 18th place, and was outside the top ten in the following dual moguls event in Fernie.
But then he began a series of nine top eight results, including back to back silver medals in dual moguls in Deer Valley and single moguls in Inawashiro, and a bronze medal result in World Cup in Naeba.
His fourth placing in the final event of the season in Voss was enough to push him into second spot on the World Cup rankings, just a month after his 20th birthday.
With just 24 events under his belt, his climb to the top echelon of moguls skiers ranked as one of the fastest in the sport’s history.
He rounded out the year with another bronze, this time at the season-ending World Championships in Ruka, Finland |
Details
- Date of Birth: 18-Jan-85
- Age: 22
- Place of Birth: Vancouver
- Birth State: BC
- Birth Country: Canada
- Residence Place: South Melbourne
- Residence State: Victoria
- Residence Country: Australia
- Height: 186 cm
- Weight: 75 kg
- Club/resort: Perisher Blue
- Institute/Academy: OWI-AIS
- Coach: Steve Desovich
- Years On National Team: 5
- Career Highlights: - Gold Medal at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy.
- Gold & silver medal at the 2007 World Championships
- World Cup Champion 05/06, 06/07
- Bronze medal 2005 World Championships
- Personal Sponsors: IDOne
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Human Interest
Any other sportsmen/sportswomen in your family:
Brother Jason competed at 2006 Torino Olympics.
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