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\n Comerford signing autographs for fans in Bormio, Italy on 16 February 2026\n<\/p>\n
IRISH SKIER CORMAC Comerford ended a mammoth 10 days of Olympic alpine skiing with a 31st place finish in the Milan Cortina 2026 slalom event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He completed two slalom runs in a time of 2:10.24 during a chaotic but thrilling spectacle at the Stelvio Ski Centre today.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elite athletes are among the best goal setters out there but they often squirrel their ambitions or aspirations away in a journal under lock and key.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It can be refreshing then when one boldly proclaims what they want from a season or a major event. Over the past year, Comerford has answered questions about his goals for 2026 honestly: represent Ireland in all four alpine skiing disciplines at the Winter Olympic Games and make the top 30 in his preferred slalom event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today, he completed a marathon week of racing in the Italian host town of Bormio with that 31st placement.<\/p>\n
Ticking off the first aim of the season, not only did the 29-year-old make the Irish team or get to the start line of each event \u2013 he successfully completed every single run, a feat not to be overlooked on the daunting Stelvio slopes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On 7 February, he was just one of 34 skiers to cross the finish line of the downhill, known as the Formula 1 of alpine skiing (which in itself people in certain parts of Europe deem to be the only \u2018proper\u2019 skiing of the Games).\u00a0<\/p>\n
And, today, as athletes battled the snowy elements of the mountain he maintained focus to be in the smaller cohort who survived the first run. Just 43 out of 95 of his fellow competitors joined him for the second run. The remainder either did not finish (DNF) or were disqualified from the difficult first run.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Comerford wasn\u2019t totally immune from that early carnage in the snow as he missed a gate in the mid-section and had to turn his skis around and go uphill to ensure there was a result beside his name.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The effort contributed to the 11.73-second time difference between him and the leader at the time, Norway\u2019s\u00a0Atle Lie McGrath.<\/p>\n
More importantly, it left him in 35th position and over three seconds off 30th spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although it could be argued that he saved himself from a DNF, Comerford was frustrated by the mistake.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a huge mix of emotions right now,\u201d he told reporters after the second run.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuper proud; disappointed; very frustrated with the result today. I know I had it in me for a top 25 looking at the splits from the first run. It was a really good performance, just the mistake in the first run was too costly. I\u2019m really frustrated with the result now but there are a huge amount of positives to take away from this week, 10 days.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Comerford signing autographs for fans in Bormio, Italy on 16 February 2026\n<\/p>\n
The commentators on the live feed did initially write off the skier\u2019s run as a DNF so how did he turn it around?\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a bit of quick thinking to go around the other side of the gate,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not my first rodeo doing that, unfortunately. Back at the world championships in 2023 I did something similar and I still managed to qualify for the second run and get a result. At least I had that experience and quick thinking to get around that gate.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou saw how many DNFs there were in the first run, and I guess I can be grateful that I managed to think fast and get around that gate and get a second run, so yeah that\u2019s a positive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is slalom. It\u2019s brutal. It\u2019s the most competitive discipline. There were so many DNFs in the first run, it\u2019s a blessing to have just made it down the first run and get a result.\u201d<\/p>\n
His second run through the 72 gates went more smoothly, clocking in at 1:02.37, over five seconds faster than his first and 28th fastest overall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was not enough though to catch the Romanian, Alexandru Stefanescu, who secured 30th position with 1.14 seconds to spare.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To underline the unpredictable nature of the sport, McGrath scuppered his lead with a DNF of his own in the second run. Arguably the harder part achieved in the poorer conditions on the tougher course, the Norwegian could not hide his anger and disappointment, throwing away his poles and walking into the nearby forest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The eventual winner Loic Meillard was asked about his rival in the winner\u2019s press conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in his place other times. Slalom is so tough,\u201d he answered. \u201cYou can be the best in the start and straddle the first gate. That\u2019s also the beauty of slalom \u2013 when it works out, it\u2019s beautiful. I was definitely sorry for him, but at the end, other times he won when I skied out and that\u2019s part of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen took the bronze while silver went to Austria\u2019s Fabrio Gstrein.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The alpine skiers now move out of Bormio to make way for a new Olympic sport, ski mountaineering, which is a mix of uphill climbing and downhill skiing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI had ambitious goals,\u201d Comerford says of his time in the Italian town.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut my parents have never skied before. My mother learned to ski when I did. My dad has never put skis on his feet. So we don\u2019t have that. There is no skiing in our blood, so it was a big task to take that on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Making it to the Olympic Games on his fourth attempt was his biggest achievement, he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s been the hardest thing about this Olympics \u2013 getting here.\u00a0I shouldn\u2019t be standing here really. There have been so many times I was going to quit. And so many obstacles I had to overcome to get here.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo everything from the day I arrived has been the cherry on the cake. Obviously we have goals and I want to push as hard as I can. And I want to be the best skier Ireland has ever had.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a shame not to meet all my goals but there are lots of positives. It would have been nice to get into the top 30 today.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to celebrate now. I\u2019ve got my friends and family here. For some of them it\u2019s the first time they\u2019ve seen me race ever. I\u2019m just really excited to share the celebrations with them, get a bit of time with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to thank everybody from home, abroad \u2013 from New York to Sydney, there\u2019s people all over the world tuning in and supporting and sending messages. It\u2019s been unbelievable and I\u2019m so grateful. I think the impact of this Olympics has been way more than I could have expected. I\u2019m super grateful for that regardless of results or anything else. So, go raibh mile maith agaibh.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IRISH SKIER CORMAC Comerford ended a mammoth 10 days of Olympic alpine skiing with a 31st place finish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[142464,137697,42,60,142894,43,142466,40,38,41,39,137042],"class_list":{"0":"post-302150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-alpine-skiing","9":"tag-cormac-comerford","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-milan-cortina-2026","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-slalom","15":"tag-top-news","16":"tag-top-stories","17":"tag-topnews","18":"tag-topstories","19":"tag-winter-olympics-2026"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302150","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=302150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}