Sauze d’Oulx, Italy – Full of sudden turns and unforgiving bumps, a perfect mogul run has no script. There is only reaction, dictated by ability and, if you are lucky, a gift or two.
Toby Dawson has the gift.
Dawson, 27, from Vail, used all the tools in his formidable arsenal as a freestyle moguls skier to claim the bronze medal in his Olympic debut Wednesday night, finishing as the top American behind Dale Begg-Smith of Australia and Finland’s Mikko Ronkainen. Dawson’s third-place score of 26.30 out of a possible 30 points was built on a pair of lofty 720-degree aerials – a mute grab and an off-axis invert – that rated second only to Ronkainen.
“I’ve always been kind of gifted in the air,” Dawson said. “That’s why I stuck some pretty difficult tricks.”
Sticking difficult tricks has become something of a trademark for the Korean-born moguls-skiing specialist adopted by a pair of ski instructors from Vail at age 3. A year ago, he won the world championship title in dual moguls just three weeks after having a pin implanted in his broken foot. It was his first world championship, but not his first significant injury.
“I’ve really been struggling,” Dawson said. “I broke my leg, tore my ligaments and then broke my foot right after that. I still have the pin in my foot. I was just happy I was able to get my health back and compete at full fitness here at the Olympics.”
Jeremy Bloom of Loveland failed to live up to his pre-Olympic billing as the reigning World Cup moguls champ with a bobble on the landing of his second air and finished sixth with a score of 25.17, one spot ahead of 2002 silver medalist Travis Mayer of Steamboat Springs (24.91). Travis Cabral of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., placed ninth after struggling on both of his jumps for a score of 24.38.
“I made a small mistake on the bottom air landing, and, you know, it’s a judged sport. I didn’t see how big the mistake was, but when people are skiing as well as they did in the top three, you can’t make any mistakes,” said Bloom, the former University of Colorado football star who plans to attend the NFL combine this month. “But I’m pumped for Toby, a Colorado boy. We should have won a couple more medals today, I’ll tell you that. But I’m happy we got away with one.”
After Dawson “completely choked” during the 2002 qualifying process for the U.S. team, he made the 2006 Olympic roster late by winning a World Cup at Deer Valley, Utah, on Jan. 13, then hit his stride with a third in Lake Placid, N.Y., before making the most of his first Olympic start Wednesday.
He skied a conservative qualifying run at the Games before selecting a unique line and uncorking his medal run in the finals.
“He’s just a tremendous skier,” U.S. moguls coach Jeff Wintersteen said. “He has a tremendous amount of touch. Not too many guys could get down that line like Toby did.”
Only the near flawless turning ability through the bumps that pushed Begg-Smith’s score to 26.77 and Ronkainen’s blistering speed and air combination worth 26.62 points could keep Dawson from the top of the podium.
“It definitely wasn’t my career run,” Dawson said. “I knew I had to have a solid performance for a medal, but I wasn’t able to quite do what I wanted to do. No one made mistakes.”
Staff writer Scott Willoughby can be reached at 303-820-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com.
