Has anyone else out there noticed the bizarre trend going on with Australia (my home country) and our performances in the Winter Olympics of the past decade or so? I mean, we’re not that well known for our prowess on the mountains covered in the white stuff yet in the past two Olympics we’ve now bagged 3 gold medals and nothing else. I like to think that means that we only like to send the “best of the best” away to the “cold games”.
If you haven’t heard about it already, Canadian-born Aussie (what a fantastic combination) Dale Begg-Smith turned on a flawless performance in the Men’s Mogul competition last night to capture Australia’s first medal in the Torino games. I was lucky enough to watch the final from start to finish and after seeing some pretty awesome aerials and skiing by the other medalists I was a little skeptical as to how Dale, who was the last one flung down the hill, was going to go. But in true Aussie style he came through with the goods and gave us all the opportunity to see, probably for the only time this games, the Southern Cross hoisted up above all other nations in Torino’s town square.
A quick scan of news articles this morning regarding Dale’s efforts have revealed that the poor fella’s efforts have been well and truly overshadowed by his life away from the mountains. It seems he’s a self-made IT millionaire dealing in online advertising. As the story goes, he’s made his millions and financed his Olympic campaign through pop-up spam advertising which, annoying in nature, probably accounts for why there is so much hoo-ha going on right now.
Anyhow… with all the excitement I’m dead set pumped about heading up to Cypress Mountain tonight with all the gang for my first “night snowboarding” experience. Yeeha!
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