Airport fiasco explained as no snow job, Dale Begg-Smith confesses to feeling that 'itch' again

HE'S BACK. After a major hiccup at the airport, Dale Begg-Smith finally showed up in Sochi wearing Australian colours.

HE'S BACK. After a major hiccup at the airport last night, Australian mogul skier and IT mogul Dale Begg-Smith finally showed up in Sochi wearing Australian colours.

The millionaire entrepreneur and super-fit sportsman fronted a press conference in the mountains behind Sochi on Tuesday afternoon after being shunted into a car away from the waiting media at Sochi airport on Monday night.

Australian chef de mission Ian Chesterman apologised for the incident which left media standing in the cold, blaming it on lost luggage and a mix-up over terminals.

"Dale for his part is the inadvertent victim of this whole process because he had no idea what was going on, he'd just arrived here, had no one to greet him, was left wandering round the airport for half an hour and there was just a cavalcade of unfortunate situations," Chesterman said.

News_Image_File: Dale Begg-Smith takes flight at a World Cup freestyle moguls qualifying event in Park City, Utah.

Australian team performance director Geoff Lipshut, who was supposed to be chaperoning Begg-Smith through the airport, said it wasn't his plan to be deceitful in any way.

"It was just a set of circumstances on the night and I do apologise for my actions," Lipshut said.

Begg-Smith still has a strong Canadian accent and pronounced words like "out" and "about" with a sound that sounds more like "oot".

SOCHI PROFILE: WHO IS THE REAL DALE BEGG-SMITH

He has been living in north America and in the Caribbean tax haven of Grand Cayman Island in the four years since the Vancouver Winter Olympics, and has spent virtually no time in Australia, visiting Sydney just twice for a vacation.

Not a holiday, but a vacation.

Despite his lack of Aussie lingo, the man who has now been an Australian citizen for a decade said he felt like one of us.

News_Image_File: Begg-Smith flies down the hill in the moguls final at the World Cup event in Finland in December.

"I view myself as Australian but I live in different areas and move around without trying to get locked down to one place," he said.

Begg-Smith said the improving Aussie moguls scene was a major reason behind his return after three years away from the sport.

"You just kind of get the itch when you see the young kids coming up," he said.

The former Olympic gold and silver medallist, who is Australia's most successful Winter Olympian, said it felt great wearing the green-and-gold tracksuit again, and that it was incredible to see over 13 or 14 years how large our team has grown.

"I'm kind of like the old guy out there now," he said.

Begg-Smith has worked with young Aussie mogul skiers Matt Graham, Brodie Summers and Britt Cox, all of whom revere him and hang on his every word of advice.

News_Rich_Media: More medals than ever before will be on offer at the upcoming Sochi Olympics with 98 events in total.

True to form for a man who operates his own timetable, Begg-Smith arrived later than any other mogul skier competing in Sochi, saying he preferred to save all his best for the event rather than training.

"I'd hate to waste one of my best runs early," he said.

As for that airport mix-up, here's how Dale saw it.

"Well I think there was quite a bit of confusion," he said.

"I showed up at some tent arrival terminal. My bags had got lost in Frankfurt, so I was the first guy out, came outside, and no one was there waiting for me.

"Then after about 15 or 20 minutes walking around, I finally got one of the Russian ladies to walk me over to the other terminal, which we walked around for a while.

"By the time I got in the car, then I guess everybody had showed up and I didn't really understand what was going on, so I guess there was some confusion."