After losing to Canadian Alexandre Bilodeau at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, one thing has become clear, Dale Begg-Smith and the Australian ski team are poor sports.
Begg-Smith, the top ranked moguls skier heading into the Olympics, was expecting to win gold in Vancouver. How sweat it would have been since Begg-Smith, born and raised in Canada, would have been beating his former country on home soil.
Things didn't go as planned however. Instead of winning gold, Begg-Smith took home the silver medal while Canada's Alexandre Bilodeau won Canada's first gold on home soil.
It couldn't have been Bilodeau's flawless turns, perfect landings, and higher difficulty jumps. To anyone who watched the moguls final, the winner was clear. Not so to Australian ski officials and Dale Begg-Smith.
Instead of accepting the loss gracefully, Australian ski officials have publically announced that they believe the judges inflated Bilodeau's score to help him win gold.
Do you know who robbed you of your gold medal Mr. Begg-Smith? You and you alone. You skied slower, your jumps weren't as clean, and your turns were sloppier than Alexandre Bilodeau. In short, he skied better. You lost.
Don't go crying to the media now. Especially after you wouldn't talk to the Canadian media leading up to the Olympic Games. Dale Begg-Smith has shown poor sportsmanship at every step and his ski officials in Australia aren't far behind.
Apparently the Canadian government got it right when they forced Begg-Smith out of the country for his shady internet dealings.
In the world of sports, sometimes, what goes around comes around. For Dale Begg-Smith, he got what he deserved, a slightly tarnished silver medal and a completely rusted reputation.
For Alexandre Bilodeau however, the best moguls skier at the 2010 Olympics, he got what he deserved as well, a gold medal and the right to call himself the best. And nothing Australian ski officials or Dale Begg-Smith say will ever take that away from Bilodeau.
Congratulations Alexandre Bilodeau for winning freestyle ski gold in the moguls, and shame on your Dale Begg-Smith.
Let the games begin.
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