Livebeijingupdates asked:


 

Over 2,000 “athletes” who poured into the Beijing Olympic Village in the latest test run of the athletes’ compounds were asked to be picky and choosy.

 

Mock dwellers, however, gave thumbs-up to the facilities and were impressed with Chinese culture that permeates the village, said the village’s general secretary Wu Jingmin.

 

Non-Chinese Olympic villagers, if they like, can pick up their Chinese names which use phonetic sounds for foreign names.

 

Sun Shishu, a Chinese language teacher working in the village, gave dozens of Chinese names in the first several hours of the trial run of the village.

 

“Let your surname be an, which means peace and safety. And your first name is Taifu, which means peace and happiness,” Sun explained to Typhen Ann, an engineer from Britain, who works at the Main Cafeteria of the Olympic Village.

 

The village, which is the home to about 16,000 athletes and officials during the Games, sits on the north end of the axis of Beijing. Important buildings of all ages, including the Forbidden City and the Tiananmen Square, are aligned down this line.

 

Further north lies the Olympic Green. To the south is the National Stadium, popularly known as the “Bird Nest”.

 

Deng Yaping, the village’s vice mayor and four-time table tennis Olympic champion, believes the biggest attraction for the Olympic Village lies in its Chinese culture.

 

“For most of the (foreign) athletes I’ve talked with, they are amazed at Chinese culture. They want to try, to feel what the real Chinese culture is,” Deng said.

 

“The village is a place where the athletes can unwind and get to know Chinese culture. We want to give them a full experience with Chinese culture.”

 

The Olympic Village is divided into northern and southern halves. In the north, or the International Area, are the Head of Village Office, Flag Square, shopping areas, restaurants, and entertainment and fitness facilities. In the south are athletes’ apartments, whose main gates are decorated with a bronze art panel.

 

On the lawns around the apartments stand Chinese traditional lamp posts and dragon-patterned stone pillars, while water lilies float on the ponds.

 

The buildings in the International Area are temporary, except for a Chinese temple compound right next to the Flag Square, which is used as the Head of Village Office where Deng will work during the Games.

 

Chinese handicraft workroom sits in the International Area, painted with Chinese traditional colors of red, yellow and blue. About 20 handicraftsmen will show their talent in embroidery, woodcarving, painting and Beijing Opera mask making during the Games.

 

“Athletes can watch the artists finishing their works, and they can buy whatever they like,” said Wang Jinqiang, the workroom manager.

 

The Beijing Olympics Village will officially open on July 27 and close on August 27. Also as the Paralympic Village, it will reopen on August 30 and close on September 20.

 

alexda asked:


ple devastated by the earthquake in southwestern China on May 12 may be the first recipients of donations from athletes of the 2008 Olympic Games, Olympic champion Deng Yaping said on Tuesday.

It is a tradition that Olympic athletes from various countries donate their outfits, shoes or personal belongings to people in developing countries, with an aim of encouraging youngsters in overcoming hardships. The practice will continue at this year’s Olympic Games, Deng said at a media function in Beijing.

Donation boxes will be set up in the Beijing Olympic Village, and major beneficiaries may be those children who were hit by the 8-magnitude earthquake in China’s Sichuan Province, said Deng, who is deputy director of BOCOG’s Olympic Village Department. The donations will give them love, strength and courage, she added.

Deng and five other world champions from China joined a group of 14 psychologists in a visit to a tent school in Mianyang County recently. They told the students stories about how they’ve dealt with difficulties and setbacks in their sports lives and encouraged children to strive for new lives with confidence, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

Young people devastated by the earthquake in southwestern China on May 12 may be the first recipients of donations from athletes of the 2008 Olympic Games, Olympic champion Deng Yaping said on Tuesday.

It is a tradition that Olympic athletes from various countries donate their outfits, shoes or personal belongings to people in developing countries, with an aim of encouraging youngsters in overcoming hardships. The practice will continue at this year’s Olympic Games, Deng said at a media function in Beijing.

Mariam Ma asked:


The Olympic Games are a time of celebration for incredible physical accomplishments. However, when a country hero wins a medal, we often wait with baited breath that the tests for performance enhancing drugs come back clean. Have we really become that jaded? Unfortunately for many of us, the answer is a depressing yes.

Be honest, how often when you watch an athlete perform an amazing feat that seems to defy human limitations, do we suspect that he/she is on performance enhancing drugs? Even though there have been great advancements in sports technology in how we train and feed our bodies, there is only so much we can push our bodies. This is the cynicism that lives inside us these days: our athletic heroes fall short and are far from perfect.

When we think about sports, we often think about the strength, the grace, the picture of perfect health of the athlete. But the mental game and the spiritual game also come into play as all three components need be unified: the mind, body and soul. For competitive athletes, it is often a more difficult task to achieve spiritual and mental greatness. There is so much at stake: endorsement contracts, state prize money, prestige and to be in the record books forever as an Olympic champion. These are factors that would test any human being. Therefore, it is not only the body that needs to be trained, but how to mentally and spiritually handle the pressure as well.

It is well known that the Olympic motto is faster, higher, stronger, but did you know this other well known ideal comes from the Olympic creed?

“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

Perhaps this is why the most compelling stories that come out of the Olympic games are not of the expected winners but those who have fought to attain their Olympic dreams.

There is also a lesson here for those of us who are not athletically gifted enough to compete in the Olympics: it’s the journey and the struggle that makes life more rewarding. For the future, instead of picking Olympic champions for motivational inspiration, we can be our own champions as we strive to triumph in our daily lives.

Michael Silver asked:


The following is an excerpt from the book Golden Girl: How Natalie Coughlin Fought Back, Challenged Conventional Wisdom, and Became America’s Olympic Champion

by Michael Silver

Published by Rodale; April 2006;$24.95US/$33.95CAN; 1-59486-254-0

Copyright © 2006 Michael Silver

Introduction

She came shooting off the wall like a human torpedo, gliding through the water with cold, relentless precision. Unleashing her incomparable, undulating dolphin kicks, Natalie Coughlin began to pull away from the field in the l00-meter backstroke, popping to the surface nearly a body length ahead of her closest pursuer. From that prime vantage point — with a picturesque view of the Athens sunset, a mere 35 meters between her and redemption — Coughlin was as good as gold.

The most talented female swimmer of her generation took a deep breath and closed in on the prize she’d been chasing for more than a decade. Six days shy of her 22nd birthday, Coughlin propelled herself backward through Lane 4, seven competitors and untold degrees of doubt, pain, and disappointment in her wake. Get to the wall, and she would forever be an Olympic champion, the haters and the traditionalists be damned. Just a dozen or so more strokes and she’d finish a 4-year struggle for self-determination that summoned every ounce of will in her being.

Just 25 meters to go, then 20, and the only question seemed to be whether Coughlin would break her own world record. Six thousand fans at the Athens Aquatic Center were cheering her home; tens of millions more would experience the suspense on television. And then . . . Oh, no. This cannot be happening. Coughlin felt an energy crash coming on — that insidious, instant loss of zip that every swimmer dreads. She grimaced as the lactic acid ripped through her leg muscles; instinctively, she bit down on her lower lip to combat the pain.

The last time this happened, in the final individual race of Coughlin’s unmatched collegiate career, she had appeared so dead in the water that her father, Jim, a police sergeant in her working-class northern California hometown of Vallejo, had barely fought back the urge to race from the stands to rescue his little girl. On that March 2004 in College Station, Texas, site of the NCAA Championships, Coughlin had been passed by two swimmers down the stretch of the 200-meter backstroke — the only time in 4 years the University of California, Berkeley, superstar had lost a meaningful race. Now, 5 months later, the nightmare was happening again.

Nooo! the voice inside Coughlin’s head shrieked. Not this! Not now! Her arms felt like redwood stumps, her legs like jelly. She veered close to the lane line, her normally perfect technique beginning to give way to panicked thrashing. She was holding on, but for how long? No one in her line of vision was making a charge — certainly not Haley Cope, once her close friend and Cal teammate, now just another obstacle between Coughlin and her rightful gold. It had to be hers, after all she’d been through; after all she’d sacrificed to swim this race on this warm Monday night.

The threat, Coughlin knew, was unseen. Over in Lane 1, blissfully shielded from the wind-induced currents rippling through the pool, was Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry, the very same Auburn University swimmer who had caught Coughlin on that awful night in College Station. Coventry was coming, hard, as Coughlin figured she would be.

The previous night, in her semifinal heat, Coughlin had eased up to win in 1:00.17, setting an Olympic record. She was the only woman ever to have gone under a minute in the event, had held the world record (59.58) the past 2 years, and owned the four fastest times in history. Now, however, it wasn’t about the clock. It was about finding a way to get to that wall before her worst fear was realized.

Fifteen meters to go, and Coughlin perceptibly slowed. She was sinking like the Titanic, and no lifeboat loomed. Her parents, Jim and Zennie, gripped each other’s hands tightly, their stomachs in knots. Coughlin’s sister, grandparents, and boyfriend watched beside them in agony; there was nothing they could do but pray. Coventry was edging closer, and Coughlin seemed to be coming back to the field as if hindered by an underwater rope.

This isn’t happening, she thought. Please, don’t let this be real. Were the gods of swimming this cruel? Were they taunting her once more? They’d given her talent, drive, and intelligence, along with an uncanny ability to feel the water that most sharks would have envied. Her “physical IQ,” in the words of one stroke guru, was astoundingly high, meaning she was able to comprehend and effect specific technique alterations in a manner of seconds. Yet at so many key moments before the 2000 Olympic Trials, when her shoulder gave out, and at the 2003 World Championships, when her fever spiked and her body collapsed — fate had conspired against her.

Now, once again, everything was falling apart — and oh, how this would hurt. She could see the headlines (“Coughlin Comes Up Short”) and anticipate the disparaging words that would be whispered in Athens and on pool decks across America. She could picture the tears running down the face of her coach, Teri McKeever, who was crouching in the stands behind the finish line, too nervous to watch with the rest of the US delegation. She could imagine the legions of traditionalists weighing in on McKeever’s methods and how they had doomed Coughlin to failure. And, clear as day, she could envision her former youth-club coach, Ray Mitchell, and hear him bellowing, “I told you so.”

It was all unthinkably devastating, and for a split second, Coughlin felt herself go numb. And then, in an instant, the fire returned. ***** that. This is my moment. For the first time in her life, she had total, unequivocal clarity. Ray’s not in charge anymore. I am. I decide how this ends, and I choose victory. I’m in control now.

Coughlin jerked her right arm up from the water, rotated backward, and slapped it back to the surface. Her kicks became steady and vigorous. She no longer saw Mitchell’s face — nor could she see McKeever’s, or those of her Cal or US teammates, or her friends or sister or parents. In her head there was only darkness, the shade of the predawn sky in Concord, California, when, as a teenager, she’d arrive at the pool before Mitchell and her Terrapins Swim Club teammates and sit in her car for 10 minutes, staring into nothingness and getting her mind ready for the task at hand. Then Coughlin would get out of the car, unlock the gate, and unravel the pool cover, shattering the early-morning silence by diving into the water and beginning another grueling practice.

Alone in the dark, Coughlin had been in control of her destiny — before the shoulder had given out and the rumors cropped up and the thoughts of quitting had begun to fill her mind. Saved by McKeever’s intuitive touch, Coughlin and her coach had created an alternative model for success; yet even now, after all her triumphs, there were doubters — including some of her trusted college teammates — who expected her to choke when it mattered most.

Well, she had a surprise for them, for Mitchell, and for everyone who’d ever questioned her mettle: That wasn’t going to happen. After thousands of miles’ worth of laborious laps to prepare for this moment, she could gut out these last 10 meters. Yes, she wanted to win for her country, her family, her school, and, most of all, McKeever. But the last 10 meters would be for her, and her alone.

Slap. Her left arm hit the water, then her right arm. I will not lose. One stroke to go, maybe, if she could time it right. Her left arm reached backward and extended, glided through the water, and touched the wall.

Coughlin’s heart was racing. This was the moment that would define her as an athlete, and she’d never wanted anything so badly. With her right hand, she pulled off the outer swim cap she’d worn over her Team USA model, then lifted her goggles and looked to the scoreboard. She squinted upward, her eyes disbelieving. Fourth? I got fourth? That can’t be right.

She scanned to check her time: 1:00.37. It wasn’t a great effort by her standards, but fourth? She closed her eyes and took another look. Five seconds passed — not an especially long time, except when you’re thinking your dreams have been dashed. Then, finally, Coughlin saw it: a big number “1″ on the right of the scoreboard. Now she understood: The “4″ had been a trick of the light. Normally, the scoreboard at a swim meet instantly rearranges itself at the completion of a race to rank the finishers from top to bottom. In Athens, for whatever reason, there had been a delay, meaning Coughlin, who’d raced from the fourth lane, was still fourth on the board when she’d looked up.

Now, at long last, the board rearranged, and her name was on top. That “1″ was the loveliest, most comforting numeral she’d ever seen.

All the muscles in Coughlin’s body relaxed in unison. Eyes closed, she raised her fist to the sky, then lifted it again, and again, and again. Her face was a mixture of resuscitated relief and unfettered joy. She had become the first US woman in Athens to capture a gold medal, and she had done it her way. Six thousand fans were on their feet cheering while tens of millions of viewers across the globe sat on their couches, watching her pretty face beaming across their television sets.

None of them, not even the people closest to her, could see the scars. But that didn’t matter. Not now. As the sun went down on Athens and Coughlin’s star began to shine, the healing process officially began.

Reprinted from: Golden Girl: How Natalie Coughlin Fought Back, Challenged Conventional Wisdom, and Became America’s Olympic Champion by Michael Silver © 2006 Michael Silver. Permission granted by Rodale, Inc., Emmaus, PA 18098. Available wherever books are sold or directly from the publisher by calling (800) 848-4735 or visit their website at www.rodalestore.com.

Camilla Mancini asked:


By Camilla Mancini

The Cycling Pro Tour of Lombardy was raced during last Saturday, 14th October. After the 245 kilometers traveled, in the one-day race, the winner was the World and Olympic Champion, Paolo Bettini, also known as “Il Grillo” (the cricket) for his sprinting style.

Bettini reached the line with eyes full of tears, as he pointed to the sky and kissed his rainbow jersey. But his tears weren’t only for the joy of winning his ninth race for the 2006 season; it was the nostalgia for the recent loss of one of the people that supported him all his live.

Sauro Bettini (42), Paolo’s older brother was killed in a car accident near La California-Bibbona in Italy, on October 2nd, 2006.

Il Grillo admitted on Friday that following his brother’s accident, he even considered withdrawing from the races, but his father convinced him to stay in the tracks and to compete on this tour.

“After winning the world title, I was still on in shape, but I wasn’t sure how mentally strong I was,” said Paolo.

Paolo was the first to attack at the Madonna del Ghisallo climb, at 45km distance from the end, and attacked again in the climb of Civiglio 18km away from the finish line at Lake Como.

On the twisted descending it seemed he was worn-out and for a moment was caught by the German, Fabian Wegmann. But at San Fermo della Battaglia climb, Bettini attacked one more time and left his adversaries behind him.

The Spanish, Samuel Sanchez grasped the second place and Wegmann the third.

The Giro di Lombardia was as exciting as it was expected, celebrated a 100 years of competitions and gave an excellent closure to the 2006 European cycling season.

But for anyone wasn’t as important as it was for Paolo “Il Grillo” Bettini, as due to this race, and especially with his conquest, he honored his beloved Sauro.

“During the race, I felt good and so decided I wanted to win to remember Sauro… I wasn’t riding on my own today… The person who used to cheer me from the roadside can’t do it anymore, but he was with me today. I didn’t win by chance”, explained Il Grillo.

Sarah-Anne Donnelly asked:


The Best of the Best



IKA 2008 will be the biggest assemblage of culinary professionals ever: 40 national teams, 90 Regional Teams, 11 military teams and 2000 chefs and confectioners will be competing for medals and the Olympic Champion Title at the Culinary Olympics 2008 in Erfurt, Germany from October 19 – 23, 2008. Competitors will be demonstrating their top culinary performance in twenty categories that encompass every area of haute cuisine and patissier.

Every four years, thousands of the world`s top chefs and confectioners compete in the International Culinary Olympics held in Germany. Officially called the Internationale Kochkunst Ausstellung (IKA) for the past 100 years, the event is known as the culinary “Olympics” because competition tests chefs in much the same way the sports Olympics do. The event began as a local cooking contest in 1896 at the Frankfurt fairgrounds which remained the location of all the competitions until 1996 when the competition moved to Berlin, and now the gastronomic paradise of Erfurt.

International competition sharpens individual culinary skills, demonstrates a country`s cuisine to the world and allows chefs to see how they compare with foreign counterparts. Team members share camaraderie, train together and learn from each other. More important than individual accomplishment is the ultimate mission: to update and improve the cuisine in the teams` country, region or organization.

The purpose of the competition is the assessment of chefs` and pastry chefs` abilities and performances. The public is thus offered a practical demonstration of the latest developments in culinary art, while the next generation of young cooks will be stimulated to further efforts. A well educated consumer is vital for the success of the restaurant sector and imperative to any country who survives on Epicurean tourism.

For more related news visit:  http://olympicmedalists.net/jason-begg-smith-jason-begg-smith-claims-australias-second-world-cup-moguls-medal/

Jason Begg Smith Jason Begg-Smith wins Australia’s first men’s medal at freestyle titles

Beijing Olympics 400m Hurdles – Runner Angelo Taylor Wins Gold Medal

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testing asked:


For only the second time in freestyle skiing history an Australian has claimed a medal in World Cup moguls, Dale Begg-Smith taking silver in dual moguls on the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic course.

Begg-Smith finished in second place in the qualifying round of the Deer Valley dual moguls event, then won his way through three rounds of head to head competition before going down to US skier Jeremy Bloom in the battle for the gold medal.

In the semi-final round, he accounted for 2002 Olympic champion, 1999 world Champion and four-time World Cup champion Janne Lahtela of Finland.

Adrian Costa is the only other Australian moguls skier to win a World Cup medal, taking silver in dual moguls in Chatel, France, in February 1998.

Maria Despas also claimed a silver medal, but in the 2001 World Championships in Whistler, Canada.

The podium finished capped the best competition weekend of Begg-Smith’s career. Two days earlier, he had produced what was then his best World Cup performance, finishing in fourth place in the single moguls in Deer Valley.

The two results lifted him to seventh place on the World Cup standings.

Of the other Australians in the event, Nick Fisher equalled the best result of his career with a 17th place, and Michael Robertson was one place further back in 18th place. Jason Begg-Smith finished in 32nd place.

In the women’s, Manuela Berchtold did not have a great day, performing her new front and back somersaults, but finishing 22nd. World Cup leader Jennifer Heil of Canada won the women’s event.

Robbie hellstrom asked:


ichael Phelps may not swim in 2012 games

Michael Phelps’ return to competition for the first time since the Beijing Olympics is on hold. The swimming superstar has been suspended for three months and had his training stipend revoked by USA Swimming.

It’s the latest complication for the 23-year-old Olympic great since a photo surfaced showing him inhaling from a marijuana pipe.

He also lost a high-profile sponsor Thursday when Kellogg Co. said it wouldn’t renew its deal with Phelps that expires later this month.



Are you like me and just a little bit fed up with all the holier then thou morality and standards being spread around like contaminated peanut butter. I am so F%&K@*& fed up with all these people (media, talking heads, leaders) who come out and decide that we should all make a bong smoking incident the end of a talented athletes career. For all of us who has ever snuck a toke behind the school gymnasium, past the duchy on the left hand side at a friends party; it all sounds pretty stupid. I’m wondering when, where and how in a world completely polluted by swindling bankers, investment advisors, car and insurance sales people, politicians, and the local MILF who is running her neighbourhood brothel did we get this sense of superiority.

Now before you start up with the he’s an athlete, a World and Olympic champion, he has a responsibility crap..just hold the phone. The kid (yeah he’s a kid 23 years old) who is the modern day aquaman minus the ability to talk to the sea mammals (though perhaps he does). He is simply put, an incredible talent. But that’s it people; he is a man, a human, a person like you and me who on a daily basis makes minor and major mistakes. When did we start to believe that because your talented, and because you achieve world class status that that makes you less human? Less prone to ***** ups? Is it the fact that his accomplishments are unattainable by the average Joe and Jane? Is it because we so desperately want to believe that while surrounded by the clowns I mentioned earlier (i.e. Bankers etc) that there is actually true perfection in our mists.?Is it because as parents we don’t explain to our children that NO ONE is perfect? That everyone makes mistakes so we fall back on that oh so over used, ‘’he was a role model for children, shame on him”, routine. Shame on him? NO SHAME ON US!

On a daily basis we are fed a dichotomy of false stories, exaggerated truths and down right lies (yeah the press had nothing to do with helping make everyone believe that weapons of mass destruction actually existed in Iraq, Sarah Palin was truly qualified to be VP and no we don’t torture people). Common! We eat it all up and we tell ourselves that we understand our world. The sad truth is we occupy this really small space generally less then 6 sq ft and we are insignificant to the greatest of scales. To put it more into context we are as significant as that small quarter inch by half inch sea shell you found on the beach last time you visited your favorite hot spot. I think that is why we feel the need to expand our space through the judgements of others. To try to take up more room by the process of bringing others down…not by lifting them up. How long do you think it will take before people start hoping President Obama fails. Never mind its already begun i think Rush ”where are my pain killers” Bimbaugh (that spelling is intentional) already has it covered.

.

It seems every opportunity we get to see someone fall down the greater pleasure we get. Phelps is an extraordinary athlete and a very ordinary individual. We have no business holding him to any standard that we aren’t prepared to hold ourselves too. Here is an example in fact; every person who has ever drank has at some point driven drunk. Most of us just never got caught. So does that make us superior? Sorry to burst your bubble, BUT NO! It just makes us fortunate. (or not depending on how you look at it)

Hence my message to those ”corporate sponsors” currently not renewing or contemplating cancelling Phelps endorsements (the ones who lay people off in the thousands, move jobs to places using child labour, practice corporate greed, apply poor management and practice in illegal dealings) GET A LIFE! You are probably in the worst position to be determining the social worth or morality of someone like Phelps. My message to those on the US Swimming Association and any other Governing body is this. Find a really short cliff and take a really long walk. Your distorted sense of values is hysterical to say the least…your history is littered with contradictory and nonsensical decisions which long ago removed you from a position of credibility. To the police or crown prosecutor who might contemplate legal charges against him i say this. Aren’t there enough killers, ****** and all round really bad people to be concentrating on? Yes i know you had do do some really tough police and legal work to capture a hardened criminal like Phelps (picking up at your local supermarket check-out line a paper with a picture on the front page of him doing the bong) was really hard work, man you guys have it rough.

Here is the true reality. The people (the ones who aren’t so foolish as to judge others) don’t care that he smoked a bong, they don’t care if he likes to put on a tinker bell outfit and prance around his house listening to Liza Mennelli…we just couldn’t care less…we really couldn’t. What we do care about is that he didn’t cheat to win his medals . He didn’t fail any anti-doping tests during the Olympics. He didn’t do things that cost fellow athletes the chance to win. What we do care about is his incredible talent, his ability to make you stop and focus on nothing else for the 100, 200 or 400 meters he was in that pool.. A place where he defies physics, logic and human ability. What we care about is that for a few weeks in a city ( of abused human rights, a Communist bastien, and AGAIN were judging him?), for 8 spectacular times he was better then everyone… EVERYONE! That’s what we care about. We care about his ability to do things no one else could do. That’s what defines him and will continue to define him…not the bong or the pot… not the DUI he got in 2004 because we all know that anyone can take a hit from a bong or drive drunk and probably has at one point or another. So hopefully those he trusts and those that care about him will help him past this minor event…because for a few weeks in London in 2012 I’d sure like to see what aquaman can do for an encore. Maybe he really can talk to the fish!

Robbie Hellstrom

testing asked:


Dale Begg-Smith has become the first Australian man to win a world championship freestyle skiing medal, taking bronze in moguls in Ruka, Finland, overnight.

The result continued a record-breaking year in which the 20-year-old skier made three World Cup podiums and finished in second place on the Cup end of season standings.

It is also the second men’s world championship medal in any skiing discipline and the first since Malcolm Milne won downhill bronze in Val Gardena in 1970.

Begg-Smith qualified in fourth place behind a Finnish trio of Janne Lahtela, Sami Mustonen and Mikko Ronkainen, with pre-race favourite Jeremy Bloom of the United States – the runaway World Cup champion – out of finals contention after a major mistake on the bottom jump of the course.

In the final, the Australian started with a perfect score on his top jump, earned the highest turns score from the judges and also recorded the fastest time down the course.

But a bad landing on the bottom jump cost him valuable points, and he went into third place behind American Nathan Roberts and Canadian Marc-Andre Moreau.

With the three home-town heroes to come, no-one in the fanatical 5000-strong crowd gave Begg-Smith any chance of retaining a place on the podium.

But all three faltered, making major mistakes on their way down the 218 metre Battery Run course, the 2002 Olympic champion Lahtela producing the best result at eighth.

For Begg-Smith, taking a medal at a world championship was definitely more significant than his World Cup success this year.

“I think world champs are more important, “ he said. “They’re once every two years, and there’s no question that everyone who comes to world championships wants to do well.”

“On World Cup, someone like Janne (Lahtela) may not care all that much because he has won so many World Cups, but definitely everyone wants to do their best once every two years at the world championships.”

“I started out conservative this season and it’s paid off as the season has gone on. Just concentrating on putting down good runs allowed me to pick up the speed gradually, feeling confident because I knew I had those good runs behind me.”

“Before I was trying to go fast right away, and if you do that you’re not confident enough that you can do it every time.”

Not for the first time this season, Olympic Winter Institute Head Moguls Coach Steve Desovich was astonished at what his star athlete had accomplished.

“When you look at where we were 12 months ago and where we are now, the progress has been enormous,” Desovich said.”

“Today was a tremendous performance. The landing on the bottom air was the only thing that was sub-par today on both runs, and that’s what may have ultimately cost him doing better.”

“He has a tendency to play it very safe, so to see the speed he had in the qualification round you knew right away he was focussed and that he could produce something special.”

“His top jump in the final was a perfect score from both judges, and to have the highest turns score and virtually the highest speed – that’s very impressive.”

“If you had said at the start of the season that he would be top ten at the end of the year I would have been very, very happy.”

“So to finish second on World Cup and then pick up a medal at the world championships, well it’s been an incredible year for him.”

Of the other Australians in the field, Nick Fisher finished in 23rd place in 23.16 points, Michael Robertson in 26th place on 22.99 points and Jason Begg-Smith in 34th place on 21.53 points.

In the women’s event, the sole Australian competitor, Manuela Berchtold, finished in 23rd place on 18.88 points after problems landing her first jump.

United States skier Hannah Kearney took the gold medal on 26.40 points from Nikola Sudova of the Czech Republic on 26.31 and Margarita Marbler of Austria.

The World Championships dual moguls event will be contested on Sunday