If at first you don’t succeed? See, the thing is, Cormac Comerford actually did succeed the first time he qualified for the Winter Olympics. And the second time, and then the third. It’s only now, at the fourth time of asking, that he actually gets to go.
Sochi in 2014? He hit the minimum standard. Pyeongchang four years later? He made the minimum standard. Beijing last time out. He made the minimum standard. So, the obvious question is why Milan-Cortina next month will be his first Games.
“So, there’s minimum standards set. You race internationally, you score points, and that’s what counts towards your qualification. But there is only one quota spot for Ireland, male and female.
“You can open up extra spots, but typically it’s just one male, one female. The selection criteria are based off is set by the national association. And the last three games, I wasn’t number one on that criteria. So that’s the reason.”
Not an easy one to swallow, you would have to imagine.
“Yeah, yeah, obviously that’s difficult, when you’re able to go, but you’re not able to go. I mean, it’s great to be able to say that you achieved the minimum criteria because … it’s not something small.
“It’s a big deal. Obviously, it’s gutting not to make the selection. It can be really tough at times. Sometimes [it] feels unfair, but such as life and sport and the rest of it.”
Now 29, Comerford is one of just four athletes who will be representing Ireland at the Games in northern Italy that will get underway on Friday, February 6 with an opening ceremony that will be held across multiple venues.
Born and bred in Glenageary in south Dublin, he competes in all four Alpine skiing disciplines having first tried his hand at the sport as a child on the dry slopes in Kilternan shortly after watching Shane O’Connor compete at the Vancouver Games in 2010.
Ireland’s other Alpine skier is the Colorado-based 17-year old Anabelle Zubray who qualifies for Ireland via her mother Rosaline McCarthy from Moate in Westmeath. She competes in the slalom and the giant slalom.
Ben Lynch, who lines up in the freestyle skiing halfpipe, was born in Dublin but moved to in Vancouver with his family when aged three. His father Kevin won the Henley rowing regatta three times and a brother Thomas has won the Boat Race twice with Cambridge.
Thomas Maloney Westgård becomes only the second person, after Seamus O’Connor to represent Ireland in three Winter Games. Born in Norway, his mother is from Galway. A cross country skier, he finished 12th in the 15km in Beijing in 2022.
It will be the smallest Irish contingent at a Winter Games since Turin 20 years ago which, incidentally, was the last time this event was held in western Europe.
Games in the interim have featured either five- or six-strong Irish contingents. The first challenge for the latest representatives and their small support staff will be the logistics.
This is to be the most geographically widespread Games in Olympic history with 25 venues spread out across four ‘clusters’ – and a total of 22,000 square kilometres – in the mostly hilly terrain of northern Italy.
As luck would have it, all four of the Irish athletes are in separate clusters.
