Anabelle Zurbay became Ireland\u2019s 35th Winter Olympian on Sunday, making history as the youngest Alpine skier to represent Team Ireland at the Winter Games.<\/p>\n
The 17-year-old finished 48th in the Women\u2019s Giant Slalom in a time of 2:31.70, delivering a composed performance on the Olympic stage in Cortina d\u2019Ampezzo.<\/p>\n
Racing among the sport\u2019s elite, Zurbay clocked 1:12.82 on her opening run before improving on her placing in the second descent with a time of 1:18.88. The event was won by Italy\u2019s Federica Brignone in front of a rapturous home crowd, while Sweden\u2019s Sara Hector and Norway\u2019s Thea Louise St Jernesund shared the silver medal after an exciting contest.<\/p>\n
Zurbay, who is focusing exclusively on the technical disciplines of Slalom and Giant Slalom, has spent recent weeks training near Cortina in Dobbiaco, familiarising herself with the terrain and snow conditions ahead of competition.<\/p>\n
Relieved to have her Olympic debut behind her, she was particularly pleased with her second run.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe second run was a lot more turny, which I\u2019m better at,” she said.<\/p>\n
“And honestly, though a lot of people said it was more bumpy, it felt less bumpy to me. I was able to actually get on my outside ski, and then on the rollers, I knew I needed a direction off, so then I could just take them. That was definitely a lot better than my first run.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe course was pretty good most of the time. Definitely bumpy, but that\u2019s to be expected, especially when you\u2019re running later in the pack. There were a lot of rolls, which I\u2019m not quite as used to. I am used to going over one pitch, but not five!\u201d<\/p>\n
Ireland\u2019s youngest-ever Olympic Alpine skier also spoke about managing her nerves on debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was definitely very nervous at the start of both runs. But once you\u2019re in the gate, you\u2019ve got to clear your head and go. Otherwise, it\u2019s not going to work. It definitely gives me more confidence, but it\u2019s still the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zurbay, whose maternal grandmother is a McCarthy from Rosemount, just outside Westmeath, will return to action on 18 February when she competes in the Women\u2019s Slalom.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere on Monday, Cormac Comerford brings his Olympic campaign to a close in Bormio, racing in the Men\u2019s Slalom, his favoured discipline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anabelle Zurbay became Ireland\u2019s 35th Winter Olympian on Sunday, making history as the youngest Alpine skier to represent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-300170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}