Australian media let fly at the country’s first Vancouver Olympics medalist yesterday, dubbing freestyle skier Dale Begg-Smith “Mr Miserable” and “the Ice Man” for his unsmiling celebration.
Newspaper reports skimmed over the Canadian-born defending champion’s moguls silver medal to focus on his unmoved appearance on the victory podium while the gold and bronze winners celebrated.
“Call him the Ice Man or Mr Mysterious,” Sydney’s Daily Telegraph said. “When Australia’s Dale Begg-Smith bagged silver in Vancouver last night, claiming his second Olympic medal, he barely cracked a smile.”
PHOTO: EPA
The Sydney Morning Herald offered a front-page critique of the Vancouver native, a software millionaire who ditched Canada for Australia in 2001 and is highly decorated in moguls skiing.
“Personally, I find it very hard to feel any sense of connection with him and even a modest attempt at breast-beating sounds hollow,” Peter Fitzsimmons wrote in a piece headed, “Why Mr Miserable leaves us icy cold.”
“He is infamous for offering monosyllabic answers to journalists,” he added. “And even in victory, or near victory, he offers nothing. To see him on the podium, between a wildly celebrating American and Canadian, while he looked like he had just sucked on a lemon, was to cringe.”
An Australian official reportedly questioned Canadian winner Alexandre Bilodeau, who delivered the host country’s first gold medal prompting national celebrations.
“My own opinion is that probably Alex is not capable of a 4.8 or a 4.9 [on his turns], because five is a perfect score,” high-performance director Geoff Lipshut told Brisbane’s Courier-Mail newspaper.
“I thought Dale won, but that’s just a gut feel,” he added.
The Australian newspaper described Begg-Smith as the “coolest man in world sport” and says he was undone by slushy conditions on the moguls course.
“Australia’s most successful winter Olympian, and most indecipherable athlete, treated the result with as little emotion as he treated his win in Turin,” the paper said. “It was impossible to tell from his face if he had finished first, second or last. Kipling, who described both triumph and disaster as imposters, would have been proud.”
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