Kirsty McGarry competed for Ireland in alpine skiing at two Winter Olympics, carrying the Irish flag at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Turin Games - where she finished 32nd in the giant slalom and 42nd in the slalom - and competing again at Vancouver 2010, where she finished 50th in the giant slalom.
McGarry grew up in Dalkey, Co. Dublin but spent every winter from birth in Châtel in the French Alps, where her parents Ian and Jane ran a ski school; she has no memory of learning to ski. She attended Rathdown School in Dublin and went full-time as a ski racer at 17.
Her older sister Tamsen was Ireland's first female Winter Olympian, competing at Salt Lake City 2002 and serving as Ireland's flag bearer there. In winning the flag-bearer role for Turin, Kirsty described it as the greatest experience of her life. She retired from competitive skiing after Vancouver and studied physiotherapy at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, graduating in 2012. In 2015 she won the Giant Slalom at the Inferno race in Mürren, Switzerland - the longest downhill race in the world - becoming the first non-Swiss or non-German winner in nearly 50 years.
Skiing
