FREESTYLE SKIING – What’s in store for Olympic champ Dale Begg-Smith?
Dale Begg-Smith. Image:: Getty Images
Words | Don St Pierre
With a sixth place finish at the World Cup opener in Ruka, Finland, it may be time to ask what the future holds for Australia’s Dale Begg-Smith, two time Olympic medallist and World Champion with four World Cup Titles and 18 World Cup wins?
Sixth place may not be a win but it’s not a bad result either, placing just in front of Canada’s Olympic gold medal winner Alexander Bilodeaux, and the softly-softly approach may in fact be part of a broader strategy to ensure Dale is in the best position to earn himself a third Olympic medal at Sochi in 2014, making him only the second mogul skier in history to do so.
Had Dale taken the gold, instead of the silver, at the Vancouver Winter Games in February 2010 he would have set himself in a league of his own within the sport of freestyle mogul skiing. As it stands Edgar Grospiron of France is the sport’s greatest Olympian, with two Olympic bronze and one gold medals. Grospiron was lucky enough to have his career span 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics – when the Winter Games shifted to alternating every two years with the Summer Games. Having the Olympics within a two year span in unlikely to happen again and with the physical pounding you take in mogul skiing four years is a long time on the World Cup between Big Os.
But if played smart, Dale is still in good position to top Edgar’s incredible Olympic legacy and that’s exactly what Olympic Winter Institute of Australia (OWIA) Head Mogul Coach Steve Desovich and Dale Begg-Smith are working on now. Play it smart, work on a safe progression, select key events to compete at and avoid the rigorous travel and the ultimate pounding one takes by competing on the World Cup circuit on a weekly basis.
“We have now formally entered what I would say is a phase three of Dale’s career,” explains Desovich, “where we need to pare down the arduous travel and less established events, preserve his body and stretch his longevity to get him to the games at Sochi, Russia in 2014.”
Dale will miss the next few World Cup competitions, taking time to get in some quality training and fitness work in Steamboat, Colorado then returning for the World Cups at Lake Placid and Calgary before the World Championships to be held at Deer Valley, Utah 2 February 2011.
But does Dale carry the aerial arsenal required to win World Cup or World Championships these days? Competitors are always pushing the aerial limits and Dale has chosen to stick with similar aerial maneuvers since 2006, which arguably may be in part what cost him the gold medal in Vancouver, along with being a touch slow. Both Olympic podium winners from Vancouver threw double twisting back flips, which make for an impressive top jump. And last weekend in Finland two of three men on podium threw 1080 off axis rotational maneuvers, so it’s fair to suggest Dale is going to be working on bringing new aerial skills to Sochi if he’s chasing another Olympic medal.
So let’s keep an eye on what’s happening with this fascinating story of the Canadian-come-Australian winter Olympic ski champion.
