{"id":313534,"date":"2026-02-23T20:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/313534\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T20:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:21:09","slug":"irelands-winter-olympians-trade-snowy-slopes-for-drizzly-dublin-after-respectable-showing-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/313534\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s winter Olympians trade snowy slopes for drizzly Dublin after \u2018respectable\u2019 showing \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just a single taxi would have been needed to ferry all the competitors on the Irish Winter Olympics<\/a> team from Dublin Airport into the city centre where they were greeted by friends and family, a media scrum and a couple of Government ministers keen to ensure their support did not go unnoticed. <\/p>\n

Anabelle Zurbay<\/a>, Cormac Comerford<\/a>, Ben Lynch<\/a> and Thomas Maloney Westg\u00e5rd<\/a> looked just a little bit dazed as cameras were pointed in their faces and they were quizzed on how it felt to be home and what were their plans were for the weeks, months and years ahead. <\/p>\n

For 17-year-old Zurbray, a slalom specialist, her mind will soon be occupied with her studies, while fellow slalom skier Comerford told The Irish Times he was giving some serious thought to where on his body he might get a very special tattoo. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a junior in high school and missing the past month has been tough,\u201d Zurbray said. \u201cBut my teachers have been pretty accommodating, apart from the fact that I have to go back and take some maths tests now.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"AnabelleAnabelle Zurbay carries the flag for the Irish Winter Olympians in Cortina, Italy. Photograph: David Fitzgerald\/Sportsfile <\/p>\n

Standing beside her was cross-country skier Maloney Westg\u00e5rd who had just completed his third whirl on the Olympic merry-go-round. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am so proud to represent Ireland on the biggest stage,\u201d he said, describing his performance as \u201crespectable even though I dreamed about more for sure\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cross-country skiing is among the most gruelling of sports, and Maloney Westg\u00e5rd admitted that he \u201ckind of questioned\u201d his life choices \u201cwhen I looked at all the other sports, but I have always enjoyed being outside and pushing the limits and being physically active and suffering\u201d.<\/p>\n

Comerford is the only Irish-born member of the team. He started learning his craft on the snow-free slopes of Kilternan in Co Dublin. \u201cI loved skiing from the moment I put skis on \u2013 just the thrill of going down the slope with speed, putting your skis on edge, and gliding down the mountain. There\u2019s nothing like it.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0What\u2019s behind the new winter sports arena in south Dublin?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He said joining Ireland\u2019s Olympic elite was \u201creally special, and it is only really starting to sink in. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure the impact will be greater in the next few days, but I\u2019m really proud and honoured to be able to say that I\u2019m an Olympian for Ireland. All of my teammates are phenomenal and they had great performances and represent us so well, but I am really proud to come from Dublin and to be able to get to the elite level in winter sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many Olympians reward themselves with a tattoo of the Olympic rings and Comerford said he was considering his options. \u201cMy parents said they\u2019d always kill me if I came back with a tattoo, but I think for the Olympics they could make an exception.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BenBen Lynch in action in the men\u2019s freestyle skiing halfpipe final at the Winter Olympics, Milano Cortina, Italy. Photograph: \u00a9Inpho\/Georgia Schofield <\/p>\n

Ben Lynch finished eighth in the men\u2019s freestyle skiing halfpipe, becoming the first Irish skier to qualify for a Winter Olympics final.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old said becoming an Olympian \u201cmeans everything\u201d and becoming Ireland\u2019s first finalist had exceeded his wildest expectations. \u201cI\u2019m really, really proud of myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lynch said his chosen discipline was among the most dangerous he could have chosen, \u201cbut that\u2019s kind of the fun part, that\u2019s why I love it. It\u2019s very dangerous but I loved watching it as a kid. It\u2019s cool. It\u2019s a really cool sport\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, Patrick O\u2019Donovan, and Minister of State with special responsibility for sport Charlie McConalogue, were among those on hand to welcome home the athletes, with O\u2019Donovan hailing them for making it to the games to represent a country that \u201cdoes not get a lot of snow\u201d. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge achievement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just a single taxi would have been needed to ferry all the competitors on the Irish Winter Olympics…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[146629,146630,137697,61,60,102,43,138007,23196],"class_list":{"0":"post-313534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-anabelle-zurbay","9":"tag-ben-lynch","10":"tag-cormac-comerford","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-italy","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-thomas-maloney-westgard","16":"tag-winter-olympics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313534","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=313534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}