Seoul, South Korea – U.S. Olympic skier Toby Dawson embraced his tearful father today as they reunited for the first time since the athlete was lost in a South Korean market more than two decades ago, leading to his eventual adoption in the United States.
“Don’t worry,” Dawson, 28, told Kim Jae-su as the two met in front of dozens of journalists at a Seoul hotel, the culmination of a years-long journey made possible after a bronze freestyle skiing medal win at the Turin Olympics last year earned Dawson wide attention in the country of his birth.
After the Olympics, dozens of would-be parents came forward to claim Dawson was their child, including Kim. But after years of dashed hopes, Dawson put off an earlier planned trip to South Korea and waited for confirmation from genetic tests before traveling here this week.
Dawson was 3 years old when he was lost in a market by his mother in the southern port city of Busan, Kim said. A truck driver at the time, Kim said it was too late when he got home to start searching for his missing child, whose original Korean name was Bong-seok. Over the next few days, he said he scoured local orphanages but was unable to find his son.
“I went to many orphanage houses, only to hear that they didn’t have anyone like him. They wouldn’t let me come inside and look for him,” the 53-year-old Kim said, adding he would search orphanages whenever he had time but eventually gave up.
“I’m not here to beat him up for what happened,” Dawson said, adding that he had a fortunate life growing up with his adoptive parents, who were ski instructors in Vail.
At the start of a news conference, Dawson gave his biological father a Norwegian skiing sweater that he said signified his upbringing in the sport, which Kim immediately put on.
When they first hugged, Dawson said he told Kim a Korean phrase he had learned for the meeting, “I’ve been waiting a long time, father.”
Also at the reunion was Dawson’s biological younger brother, 24-year-old Kim Hyun-cheol. All three men wrapped their arms around each other before heading to a family lunch.
