Australia embraces golden mogul mystery man

By Sid Astbury Feb 16, 2006, 13:31 GMT

Australia\'s Dale Begg-Smith in action during the men\'s Freestyle Skiing Moguls final in Sauze d\'Oulx at the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games, Wednesday 15 February 2006. EPA/JOHN G. MABANGLO

Sydney - What next for a handsome and decidedly bright multi-millionaire with an Olympic Games gold and a reputation for being cool under fire?

Politics?

It's an unlikely next step for 21-year-old Dale Begg-Smith, the skiing wunderkind who this week thrilled his adopted country by becoming only the third Australian to strike gold in the Winter Olympics.

Public life in Australia is a rough-and-tumble affair and politicians are obliged to be open about their business interests and about their private lives.

Begg-Smith is miserly with the details of a stellar career in the computer industry that some reckon has landed him a fortune of 40 million US dollars.

At the post-race press conference the winner of the freestyle skiing moguls event wouldn't even give the name of his company. 'It really doesn't have a name,' the Canadian-Australian dual-national said.

There was more evasion when pressed on the amount of money he has made from an enterprise that is believed to track those pesky ads that pop-up on computer screens, the spam that clogs in-boxes and the spyware that trawls for information.

'The company is nowhere near as big as people make it out to be,' he said in the Sauze d'Oulx resort near Turin, Italy. Begg-Smith terminated the press conference with an appeal to reporters to stick to questions about skiing. He said: 'I don't know why we are talking about the company. I've won an Olympic gold. I'm not here for business.'

Taciturn he may be, but Australians were nevertheless keen to embrace their latest sporting hero. Prime Minister John Howard was first in with felicitations to the man-of-the-moment.

'In such a high standard of competition, to win the gold medal must give you a tremendous sense of accomplishment. Well done, on a wonderful achievement,' Howard said.

Begg-Smith hasn't a trace of an Australian accent. He grew up in Vancouver. He and older brother Jason arrived in Australia from Canada when he was 15. (Jason, who is now 25, is a business partner as well as an Olympian in the same event as his brother, finishing 29th.)

The brothers settled in the New South Wales ski resort of Thredbo. Their coach was Steve Desovich, a recent arrival from Canada, who persuaded them to set their sights on representing Australia.

Desovich describes Begg-Smith as 'impenetrable' as 'never showing weakness.' He demonstrated those qualities in abundance when, skiing last in the final, he put in a near perfect performance on the 223-metre course - and then celebrated not with fist-pumping but with a golf-style smile.

Begg-Smith is given to stating the obvious and the innocuous. 'I'm really happy to win a medal for Australia,' he said after his Olympic triumph. Of mentor Desovich, he said: 'I'm really happy Steve is my coach. He's a great coach and helps me a lot.'

Australians are new to Begg-Smith. He has no public profile at all. He seems to live most of the time in Vancouver, where 30 staff work for him. His other address is in Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city.

Things are unlikely to change. Begg-Smith is not the type to seek publicity, be seen around town and have his picture in the society pages of newspapers. He doesn't have to court endorsements from sports goods manufacturers or parlay his celebrity into dollars. He can afford to be low key.