Speaking in the afterglow of Jakara Anthony’s stunning performance to claim gold and Cooper Woods’ emergence to make the men’s super final, Mr Lipshut credits Dale for creating the momentum, a sense of belief in the mogul program and the fortunes of our competitors.

With four entries in the men’s and women’s moguls at Beijing 2022, Australia was one of only three nations (Japan and the United States of America) to have a maximum number of entries in the 30-person fields.

With two gold medals now, moguls is Australia’s second most successful discipline at the Winter Olympics behind aerials.

“One of the world’s great coaches Steve Desovich joined the program in 1998, but when Dale came along in 2001 he brought with him both success and belief, which are two vital ingredients,” Mr Lipshut said.

“Dale then coached and helped Matt Graham. Britt [Cox] saw a lot of Dale and grew up with Matt and all of a sudden you had a great core of moguls competitors.”

Dale claimed Australia’s first gold medal in the moguls at Torino in 2006 and then followed it up with a silver at Vancouver four years later to become Australia’s most successful mogul skier.

“When you look at Dale, someone who had high expectations about performing at the highest level, and then was able to go out and do it, that mindset really rubs off on the rest of the team.

“What we’ve tried to do is replicate that into our program now.”

Australian Olympic Team Deputy Chef de Mission and Salt Lake City aerials gold medallist Alissa Camplin has identified the four key pillars that are necessary to ensuring an ongoing successful program, regardless of the discipline.

“Firstly, you need world class coaches, always,” Camplin said.

“Then you need the best talent to make it all work.

“But you need to match those two with facilities and for so long we haven’t had that at home to enable participation and the right talent to make their way to the sport.

“Finally, you need organisational culture which enables great culture at the team level. You have to be organised at a cultural level because then the best coaches will want to come and be a part of the program.”

Mr Lipshut believes those foundations are firmly in place at the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia (OWIA) where he is the Chief Executive.

“Our challenge in attracting the best coaches across the disciples is to answer the question ‘can you offer me secure employment?’ We can do that now in Australia.

“[Our coaches] are passionate about their work, and it feels like a family environment, and you get that great return on the investment.”

Damian Kelly

#HaveAGo