Dale Begg-Smith
Sport Freestyle Skiing
Event(s) Moguls
Birthdate January 18, 1985
Birthplace Vancouver, British Columbia
Residence Melbourne, Australia
Olympics Debut
BioNewsResultsDale Begg-Smith bio text
Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
Begg-Smith's online marketing company has funded his prosperous skiing career.
Begg-Smith breaks out
First-time Olympian Dale Begg-Smith of Australia had a breakout season in 2004-05. The 21-year-old finished second behind American Jeremy Bloom in the overall World Cup moguls standings and earned bronze in his world championships debut. He's also having a stellar 2005-06 season, as he's placed on the podium six times, four of which were wins. Begg-Smith enters the 2006 Games with a substantial 149-point lead in the World Cup standings.
Good on ya, Canuck
A native of Vancouver, British Columbia, Begg-Smith began his career competing for Canada. The dual-citizen of Canada and Australia competed in several Nor-Am events between 1997 and 1999 on the Canadian team, but didn't want to wait on the nation's development team while other skiers were selected to compete at World Cup events. Frustrated, Begg-Smith quit freestyle skiing when he was 15, but regained interest in 2001 when he met Steve Desovich, a longtime Canadian coach who left to work with the Australian team in 1999. Begg-Smith and his older brother, Jason, got dual-citizenship and began competing for Australia in 2003-04.
Another kind of mogul
Begg-Smith is a business mogul off the slopes. At 13, the entrepreneur founded an online marketing company that he says has grown to the third-largest in the world. Begg-Smith originally started the Vancouver and New York-based company, which designs search engines and pop-up window blockers for about 5,000 websites, to fund his ski career. Thirty employees work directly for Begg-Smith.
Putting in overtime
The Aussie's business takes up about 10 hours of his day, leaving little time for freestyle training. "All these guys are in the gym," he said in February 2005. "I don't do any of that. I had meetings in Tokyo this week while guys were training for two days on this weekend's course." But there are benefits to Begg-Smith's long hours -- he drives a $300,000 Lamborghini when he's in Vancouver.
It seems his business is POP UP WINDOWS..go figure.