SAUZE d’OULX, Italy – Jeremy Bloom and Toby Dawson skied one last moguls run Wednesday, jack-hammering over the bumps and flying off the jumps before setting off on different post-Olympic missions.
They achieved mixed results under the lights in front of a lively crowd in the first freestyle event of the Turin Games. Dawson salvaged a bronze medal out of what many had hyped as a possible U.S. sweep. Bloom, the star of the sport the past two years, smudged his second landing and finished sixth.
Dale Begg-Smith, an Australian who grew up in Canada, won gold with big air, crisp turns and clean tricks. Finland’s Mikko Ronkainen pivoted across the icy mounds with the third-fastest time of the night to take the silver medal.
Bloom had to give up his college football career at Colorado to pursue moguls racing. The NCAA would not allow him to accept skiing endorsement money and keep his eligibility. He didn’t get the gold he set out for, but said he had no regrets.
“There’s a small disappointment in not achieving my goal of a perfect run, but it’s been more than worth it,” he said. “A world championship, a world record – those are things I can put on my mantel when I’m old and gray.”
He’ll skip the Closing Ceremony, however. He departs Turin on Friday. He’s got a previous engagement at the NFL Combine, which he hopes will lead to Part II of his athletic career.
“I’ve been in the skiing NFL for the past eight years and I’m ready to try the next level,” said Bloom, 23, a fleet receiver and kick returner in college. “Sinorice Moss (of the University of Miami) will be at the combine, and running with him will be a good indication of where I stand.”
Dawson also put off a quest until after the Turin Games. His is a personal one. He wants to find his birth parents. Dawson was adopted at age 3 1/2 from a Korean orphanage by Vail, Colo., ski instructors. His Olympic success may aid his search. He has become famous in Korea, where the Korean media has publicized his story.
“It’s been very emotional,” said Dawson, 27. “I’ve had some people claiming they are my birth parents. I got some random phone calls. But I didn’t want to know until after the Olympics. I’m just taking the process slowly.”
Dawson’s adoptive mother, Deborah, recalled when she adopted Dawson as a toddler and compared that moment to Dawson’s moment on the podium.
“It was kind of like right now – a thrill,” she said. “I had his little picture for four months before I saw him in person and I fell in love with it. Then he arrived at the Denver airport on March 31, 1982, and it was a feeling like I’m feeling right now.”
She also compared the long and complicated adoption process to Dawson’s perseverance as a skier. He admitted he “basically choked” at the 2002 Games.
“I had always wanted to adopt,” she said. “It was like Toby’s passion for skiing.”
She said he pursued skiing and hockey from a young age, and it helped his confidence as he adjusted to life in Colorado.
“He was shy,” she said. “It used to be a struggle for him to smile and look someone in the eye. Now when I see him on TV I can’t believe it.”
Dawson’s acrobatic skill was apparent early.
“We had a trampoline in the backyard and I used to watch him from the kitchen,” Deborah said. “When he went beyond the window I knew he was high.”
On Wednesday, Dawson performed a double helicopter with a grab on his first jump and an off-axis 720-degree spin on his second to score 26.30 points. He bumped teammate Travis Mayer out of medal contention and took over second place.
Neither Bloom nor Travis Cabral could break into the top three. Begg-Smith skied last, and his back layout and 720 Iron Cross earned him 26.77 points, and bumped Dawson to third.
“I had a little mistake and one-footed the landing,” said Bloom, who also lost his chance at gold at the 2002 Olympics with a mistake that knocked him to ninth place.
He plans to hang up his boots and train for five days in California. Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will help prepare him with pass-catching drills. He’ll also practice the 40-yard dash and the three-cone drill, then try to impress coaches and scouts in Indianapolis Feb. 23-26. He hasn’t played regularly since the 2003 season. He’s known for his speed, but is smallish at 5-9, 170 pounds. His goal is to gain 15 pounds this spring. He’s projected as a third- or fourth-round draft pick.
“I’ve heard good things, and I’m coming in at a good time,” Bloom said as he pulled on an Under Armour T-shirt – one of his sponsors. “I’d like to look at myself as the next Steve Smith or Santana Moss – explosive, fast guys. But I know that’s setting the bar high.”
Bloom redshirted his freshman year to concentrate on the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. After he lost his court challenge of the NCAA, he stopped playing football and upgraded his jumps to keep pace with new moguls rules that allow inverted (feet above head) maneuvers. Last year, he won the overall World Cup title.
He also has done fashion modeling and has signed deals with a Hollywood talent agency, Rip It drink and 24-Hour Fitness.
“When I look back on my skiing career I have to pinch myself,” Bloom said. “I’m looking forward to football.”
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(c) 2006, The Miami Herald.
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Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
AP-NY-02-15-06 2033EST
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