Day Fourteen – Team Ireland at Milano Cortina ‘26
In sensational style, Team Ireland’s Ben Lynch qualified for the Olympic Final of the Men’s Freestyle Skiing Halfpipe, finishing 11th in the qualifiers with a top score and personal best of 75.75. The top twelve qualifiers from today’s qualifying two rounds progress to the Olympic Final later tonight.
Lynch’s showing today marks him as Team Ireland’s 35th Winter Olympian and demonstrates his ability to perform on the biggest stage.
Speaking after the race, Lynch said,
“I’m feeling unbelievable. I’m so excited. Really, really grateful to be here and to make the finals is a cherry on top for me. I’m officially an Olympian and officially a finalist as well, which is just mind-blowing.
In his first run, the Dublin-born skier finished clean with a score of 57.00, giving him confidence ahead of his second shot. Athletes got two opportunities to land a score, with the best score from either run counting towards their overall standing.
In his second run, Lynch threw everything at it, knowing that he had to go big to make it to the top twelve, and landed a right double cork 12, a trick that he hadn’t previously done in his training runs. Today was the first time he ever did two doubles in a contest run, and the first time he’s ever landed two doubles in a row. The courage paid off resulting in a personal best score of 75.75, qualifying him for the final in 11th place.
“So I did my first run, just like the singles run that I’d planned to do. Landed it perfectly, and I went for the right 12 in my second run. I hadn’t done it in training yet, so it was the first time for me today. I haven’t done that trick since three, four months ago. So to land that in my run was unbelievable and I’m really, really excited to be in finals right now.
“During the run I was thinking about landing my first tricks, not thinking too far ahead to the right 12 because it’s very easy to get distracted. So yeah, I visualised it beforehand and then I did my first two tricks, and then it was on, and I did it perfectly. Landed so well, and I’m really, really excited. “
Today’s qualification was originally scheduled for yesterday morning (19 February), but due to heavy snowfall it was postponed to today. During the event the snow returned, resulting in slower and challenging conditions that caught out a number of athletes.
“The pipe was a little bit slow today because we had fresh snow, so it was really about who has got the best wax job, tune job, and then also who can maintain their speed. So it was really a game of being clean. I think that definitely played into my advantage because a lot of the bigger guys couldn’t do their best tricks. So yeah, I’m really, really grateful to be in the finals tonight and hopefully I’ll be able to land it again.”
Being one of the taller athletes in the field, Lynch drew on the advantages that presented,
“I actually find in this half, half pipe because it’s so much bigger, I can go a lot bigger in this half pipe comfortably. So that honestly played into my advantage and yeah, I skied better than I ever have today and I’m just so, so excited to have made finals.
With plenty of Irish spectators making the trip to support him, including his parents, Lynch made a brief detour between runs to embrace them, taking that energy to push him to go bigger in his second effort.
“I went and gave my mom and dad a hug. I was so, so excited. And then after that all settled down I was like, all right, it’s time to try the ride 12. That’s what was going through my head and just the feeling of having that first clean run out of the way and just the pipe to kind of just go for it. It was a really cool feeling. And yeah, lots of adrenaline on the landing as well, so yeah, it was good.”
Ben Lynch is the second Irish Olympian to compete in the Freestyle Skiing Halfpipe, and is proud to be following in the footsteps of 2018 and 2022 Team Ireland Olympian Bubba (Brendan) Newby,
“Bubba sent me a long message on WhatsApp. A good pep talk. He was saying, ‘I’m so excited for you to carry on the torch for Team Ireland in the halfpipe’, which was really helpful. And to hear those words from him were really special. And yeah, I’m really proud to put the rundown for him and make the finals.”
This evening’s finals in Livigno take place at 18:30 Irish time.
Please contact heather@olympicsport.ie for interview requests and for moving images of training, which will be available over the coming weeks.
RESULTS – FRIDAY 20 FEBRUARY:
Freestyle Skiing, Men’s Halfpipe Qualifiers, Ben Lynch 11th with a top score of 75.75 (PB)
SCHEDULE DAY 14 – FRIDAY 20 FEBRUARY (All times are Irish times – Italy is one hour ahead)
18:30 Freestyle Skiing, Men’s Halfpipe Finals, Ben Lynch