Winter Olympics 2022: Mogul gold medal hope Matt Graham on the real Dale Begg-Smith

One of Australia’s best gold medal chances, moguls star Matt Graham, unmasks Australia’s most mysterious Olympian, Dale Begg-Smith.

Matt Graham is hoping to add gold to his silver medal. Picture: Matthias Hangst/Getty

Most Australians never really got to know the real Dale Begg-Smith.

A legend in mogul skiing, he won Olympic gold and silver medals for Australia more than decade ago after switching his allegiances from his birth land Canada, but little else is known about him.

A self-made multi-millionaire who shunned the limelight, he was once dubbed the most mysterious man in Winter Olympic history, and remains an enigma to the day.

But to those who know him well, Begg-Smith is an inspiration and a regular bloke who has been quietly helping to mentor the new breed of super talented Aussie mogul skiers without any fuss or fanfare.

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Australian mogul skier, Matt Graham, is one of our best medal chances.

Matt Graham, who won a silver medal at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, credits Begg-Smith for helping him get to where he is – among the very best mogul skiers in the world – and insists he’s misunderstood.

“There was always a bit of negative stigma around Dale because he was trying to ski and manage a business at the same time,” Graham said.

“But once you get to know him, he’s a pretty casual comic sort of guy.“

Graham, now 27, first got to know Begg-Smith by accident.

Graham was just in his early teens at the time and skiing down a hill at Perisher when Begg-Smith and his coach spotted him and asked the youngster if he wanted to train with them for a couple of days.

“The plan was Dale would coach me and the coach would coach him,” Graham said.

“That was pretty cool for a young kid and he’s had quite a big influence on my career since then.”

The pair were teammates at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics – Graham’s first and Begg-Smith’s last – but have made on contact ever since.

Last month, when Graham fractured his collarbone in a freak training accident in Swede, one of the first messages of encouragement he received was from his mysterious mate.

Racing against time to be ready for Beijing, Graham was worried that his Olympic dream was in jeopardy but the note he got from Begg-Smith perked him up straight away and reminded him that he can overcome any setback.

Dale Begg-Smith in Sochi. Picture: AAP/Paul Miller

“Obviously, the experience helps. It’s like any profession or workplace, the more experience you have the more confident and comfortable you are in the environment,” he said.

“So the people I compete with and compete against at World Cup level and the Olympics, it’s the same people I see week in, week out.

“So at my second Olympics in PyeongChang, I was a lot more comfortable and at ease than I was at my first Olympics.

“I’m not too concerned about the nerves or the external hype about the Olympics and stuff like that.”

Before his injury, Graham was in career-best form and heading into Beijing as a red-hot medal contender.

In 2019 he finished runner-up at the world championships and in 202-21, he became the first Aussie male since Begg-Smith to win the Crystal Globe for finishing top of the World Cup standings.

“Come The Olympics, anything can happen,” he said.

“A lot of the sports that Australia are particularly good at, you’re kind of playing with inches there.

“We love all those extreme sports but things can go horribly wrong in a split second.

“If the cards don’t go our way, then everyone can crash out and we can home over nothing but if the stars do align and everyone just focuses on themselves and puts their run down, then it can be a very successful Olympics.

Matt Graham is hoping to add gold to his silver medal. Picture: Matthias Hangst/Getty

“A good run for me, are the ones that feel easy, the ones where I get to the bottom and I can hold a whole conversation. so I’m not extremely puffed or exhausted.

“Whereas the runs where you would be on edge and out of control and off balance require a lot of strength and an energy to sort of kind of keep me composure and hang on.

“Basically, in mogul skiing you are teetering on the edge of control and out of control, and you want to be right on that limit because if you’re too far in control you’re probably going to be too slow and too conservative and you’re out of control too much, then you’re sloppy and you make a mistake and scores go down.”