1985 -

When Dale Begg-Smith won the Olympic title in the men’s moguls event at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, he became Australia’s third winter gold medallist in history - after Alisa Camplin (freestyle skiing) and Steven Bradbury (speed skating). In the lead-up to the Turin Games Begg-Smith won three World Cup rounds and was ranked number one in the world in the moguls discipline. After the Games, he continued to dominate - winning three World Cup titles in a row. Only one other skier in the history of the sport, the French legend Edgar Grospiron, had ever won three consecutive World Cup titles while also holding the Olympic crown.

Begg-Smith was born in January 1985 in Vancouver. Skiing for Canada, he made his international debut in January 2001, finishing 18th in the World Cup just 10 days after his 16th birthday. He was training in a Canadian ski program when his coaches told his he was spending too much time on his fledgling internet business. He subsequently quit the program because it clashed with his business interests, and moved to Australia with his brother Jason. The pair stayed out of competitive skiing for three years, trained with the Australian team at Jindabyne each year, and took out Australian citizenship - which made them eligible to compete for their adopted country. In Turin, in one of the most competitive events of the Games, Begg-Smith received a remarkable 14.5 points for his turns - 0.70 more than any of his rivals - and still ranked very high in air points and speed.

Harry Gordon, AOC Historian