Australian freestyle moghul skier Dale Begg-Smith has claimed the world number one ranking, after winning two gold medals at the 2010 FIS Freestyle World Cup fourth round event in Calgary, Canada, from 9 to 10 January.

The 24-year-old Begg-Smith dominated the 9 January event, scoring the highest points in the final for turns and third highest for jumps, for a total of 23.73 points. He collected his sixteenth career win comfortably ahead of Canadian Vincent Marquis on 23.38 points and Russian Alexandr Smyshlyaev on 23.27.

Begg-Smith continued his superb form the following day, not only recording the highest score for turns and the third best jump a second time, but also the fastest time: 21.90 seconds, more than half a second quicker than his nearest rival. He won the event with an overall score of 25.25 points, ahead of Canada’s Alexandre Bilodeau in second place on 24.70 points, and Smyshlyaev in third on 24.42 points.

After winning four out of 12 rounds of the World Cup series, Begg-Smith is now leading in overall standings, on 295 points. Sweden’s Jesper Björnlund is in second place on 281 points and Bilodeau is in third on 205. It’s been a remarkable comeback for Begg-Smith who has gone from recovering from a knee reconstruction operation to become the world’s top ranked freestyle skier in only 12 months.

Begg-Smith’s fellow Australian Institute of Sport/Olympic Winter Institute of Australia skiers Ramone Cooper and Sam Hall both missed out on places in the two freestyle moghul finals after finishing in 25th and 27th place (Cooper) and 28th and 32nd place (Hill) in the qualifying rounds.