VAIL DAILY: Seven years ago, Toby Dawson helped Pyeongchang secure the Winter Olympics with a stirring speech at the International Olympic Committee Session in Durban, South Africa.
“My name is Toby Dawson,” he told the IOC in 2011. “My name is also Kim Bong-seok. I am a freestyle skier and I am an Olympian. I am a Korean by birth, yet I am also an American.”
He said hosting the Olympics would improve the lives of future generations of South Koreans, giving them “the same chance that I received when I moved to America in 1981 — the chance to hope, the chance to participate, the chance to excel and the chance to succeed.”
On Thursday, Dawson stood in the finish area of the moguls course at the Winter Olympics, coaching the South Koreans on their home snow.
The dream was finally a reality.
And you can be certain the home crowd will explode in celebration if Dawson’s skiers are able to win a medal in skiing — their first ever — Sunday or Monday in the women’s and men’s moguls finals.
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