Toby Dawson

Toby Dawson

Olympic Mogul Skier

Toby Dawson was born Kim Bong-seok in Busan, South Korea (1978). He was sent to an orphanage when he was lost from his mother at a busy market in 1981. An American couple from Vail, Colorado adopted him a few months later and named him Toby Dawson. The students at Vail teased and bullied Dawson because he looked different. This made him focus on the sport of skiing. Dawson joined the US Olympic Ski Team at the age of 19, and in 2006, he won an Olympic bronze medal. He eventually reunited with his parents when his birth father saw Dawson's image in the media. 

(Portrait by Kayla Benito, SFSU 2016)