JUST 31 Irish athletes have competed for Ireland in the Winter Olympics to date and three of them have done something which is even rarer and particularly historic.
Pat McDonagh, Terry McHugh and Claire Bergin are part of an international sporting elite having competed at a Summer and Winter Olympics, an achievement made all the more remarkable given that Ireland is not an alpine nation.
It is 30 years exactly since McDonagh and McHugh were part of the pioneering Irish bobsledders who were Ireland’s first ever Winter Olympians in Albertville in 1992 and Bergin, a bobsledder in 2010, is the only other dual Olympian in Irish sporting history.
Pat McDonagh
Dublin rower Pat, from Inchicore, competed in a coxed four in Moscow 1980 (finished 11th overall) and became a two-time Olympian in Seoul in 1988, in a coxed pair with Frank Moore, by which time he was already taking a twin-track to Olympic history.
Himself and his Neptune teammate Gerry Macken responded most eagerly when London-Irish businessman Larry Tracey went to Henley in 1986 to recruit Irish rowers for a bobsleigh team.
Andrew Hodges joined the trio in Ischl (Austria) that Winter to do the mandatory week’s course needed to get an international bob driver’s licence.
“We met a lot of people there because the international federation wanted to open the sport up to a lot of other countries then so it was a great time to be involved but we were initially just going along for the excitement,” Pat recalls.
“There was no mention of the Olympics then, Larry was just trying to get a team together with some other Irish guys. He’d already competed in bobsleigh at the British Championships with (rower) Steve Redgrave.”
After competing on the international circuit they were all set to compete in the 1988 Olympics in Calgary but it wasn’t to be and Albertville was their first .
“Rowers weren’t the ideal athletes for bobsled, you really need speed and power over 30m (for the start) which we didn’t have but I met Terry McHugh, the javelin thrower, in Seoul. Terry was the perfect athlete for bobsleigh and had great connections in athletics which brought in some more great athletes.”
That resulted in two Irish bobs – McDonagh (driver) and McHugh (brakeman) as well as Macken and decathlete Malachy Sheridan – becoming Ireland’s first Winter Olympians in 1992, with Garry Power and John Farrelly the travelling reserves.
They finished 32nd and 38th respectively from a field of 46 teams.
McDonagh says: “We had one bad run (out of four) that put us back three places but most of it was good and I came back happier than from the Summer Olympics. We were more in control of what we achieved in bobsleigh and we really hadn’t had a huge amount of coaching although we had some from Horst Hörnlein, who was coaching the British team.”
A back injury had already ended his rowing career and while it did not impinge him as a bobsled driver he did not compete again but was very involved, in coaching and leading the Irish Bobsleigh Association, until 2002.
McDonagh gives Larry Tracey, who bankrolled and drove the sport initially, the credit for Irish bobsleigh’s remarkable Olympic history but he too played a seminal role and also encouraged generations of Irish rowers to follow their dream.
Apart from one year, when he worked as a graphic designer, Pat spent his whole career teaching art in Mourne Road Secondary School in Drimnagh and he also played a weekly music gig, at the Dame Tavern, for many years which was a home from home for Irish rowers.
He retired from teaching in 2013, lives in Blanchardstown, plays golf in Donabate and walks his dogs daily around the nearby National Sports Campus.
“Sometimes people say it was a great achievement but it just fell my way and I was one of the lucky ones, it happened without me really trying to be honest.
“I just look back and say it was a really exciting time to be involved in both sports. I made a lot of friends and it was a real blast to carry the flag around in Albertville.”
Words: Cliona Foley
Images: Permission from IOC only
