Toby Dawson
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Toby Dawson ( ko, 김수철, Kim Soo-cheol, born 김봉석, Kim Bong-seok May 4, 1979 in
Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...
,
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
) is an American retired
mogul skier Mogul skiing is a freestyle skiing competition consisting of one timed run of free skiing on a steep, heavily moguled course, stressing technical turns, aerial maneuvers and speed. Internationally, the sport is contested at the FIS Freestyle Worl ...
. He won a
bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...
at the
2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...
. Dawson is a featured athlete on the sports medicine show
Athlete 360 ''Athlete 360'' is a television program that runs on Fox Sports Net channels across the United States. The only television show focused exclusively on sports medicine, ''Athlete 360'' takes the form of long interviews with a different athlete ea ...
. He is currently a coach for the Korean national freestyle skiing team.


Early life

Dawson was born in Busan, South Korea as Kim Bong-seok. When he was three, then-Kim Bong-seok was at a crowded Jungang market in Beomil-dong,
Dong-gu, Busan Dong District (literally ''east district'') is a '' gu'' in central Busan, South Korea. It was one of the first 6 ''gu'' of Busan established in 1957. Busan Station is located in Dong-gu. Dong-gu has a status of sister localities with Gwangsan- ...
with his mother and went missing. His father went through many orphanages in the area for days, and his son was nowhere to be found. A couple from Vail, Colorado, who were ski instructors, adopted Kim Bong-seok and he was renamed Toby Dawson.


Reunion with biological parents

A man from Busan, Kim Jae-su (Korean: 김재수), saw Dawson's image in the media; Kim had a missing son of Dawson's age, a DNA test has proven that Jae-su is indeed Dawson's biological father. Dawson and Kim met in Seoul for the first time on Wednesday, February 28, 2007, along with Kim's younger son. Dawson has stated his intent to start a foundation, named after his birth name, to prevent such cases in the future. After the reunion, Kim, Dawson, and his biological younger brother had lunch. Dawson met his biological mother on Friday, November 2, 2012 in
Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...
, South Korea, according to his
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
, with his biological father and brother. He is a PR ambassador for Korea National Tourism Organization and the 2014, 2018
Pyeongchang Pyeongchang (; in full, ''Pyeongchang-gun'' ; ) is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea, located in the Taebaek Mountains region. It is home to several Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. It is about east southeast of Seou ...
Olympic Winter Games Bid Committee.


Personal life

Dawson married Leah Halmi on March 14, 2007 in
Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land a ...
. They held a second wedding ceremony on May 24, 2007, in Busan, South Korea. Dawson and his wife were featured on the WE TV show "Platinum Weddings" which premiered on June 24, 2007. The couple wrote a book together, called ''Twenty-Two Years for Twenty-Two Seconds''. They divorced in 2009. On September 14, 2013, Dawson married Kim Yeon-ji, a former member of the South Korean national taekwondo team in
Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
. Kim won the
World Taekwondo Championships The World Taekwondo Championship is held every two years by World Taekwondo. Competitions 1 Wuxi, China, was originally selected to host the 2021 World Taekwondo Championships. Due to the impact of the Global COVID-19 pandemic, Wuxi gave up ...
twice in 2001 and 2003.


References


External links


Toby Dawson's U.S. Olympic Team bio
(with two photo galleries)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawson, Toby 1978 births Living people American adoptees South Korean adoptees Freestyle skiers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in freestyle skiing American male freestyle skiers Olympic freestyle skiers for the United States People from Vail, Colorado South Korean emigrants to the United States American sportspeople of Korean descent Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics