The youngest of four boys to Irish Dad Kevin and Mum Claire from South Africa, Ben spent his first couple of years in Dublin before the family emigrated to Canada. It was there where he learned to ski on Grouse Mountain close to their family home in Vancouver. His three brothers all skied and he wanted ‘to be cool like them.’
His mum, who he cites as ‘the biggest believer in me from the get go’ put him in the racing programme at the age of six, but he found it restrictive and just not for him.
“My original thing that I did was trampoline – that was where this all stemmed from. I had a trampoline in my backyard and I would do corks, and spins and flips and stuff and then I was like why don’t I just do that on skis, and that was how it started.”
His mum would drive him to the Vancouver Freestyle club on the weekends where it was all ‘jumps and bumps’ and he would spend the day there just freestyle skiing for fun. He started competing at the age of 12 and concentrated on Slope Style and Big Air until he switched to the halfpipe at the age of 19. For halfpipe he trains in Calgary – where the only halfpipe in Canada is, a 12 hour drive from home which means he has had to relocate to pursue his dream. He spent time on the Canadian development team before changing course to Team Ireland last year citing it as a really good opportunity to represent the country where he was born at the Olympics.
Halfpipe involves competitors on skis performing a series of tricks in the air while launching off the steep walls of a large 22 foot high U shaped halfpipe of snow; ‘it feels very free; like you’re flying sometimes.’ Amplitude, execution and difficulty are the criteria by which they’re judged.
“Usually you’re going for perfection – that is the goal, but everyone does tricks a little differently and that uniqueness is accounted for and will almost benefit you, although it’s hard to be unique in the halfpipe because it’s so difficult but if you can do something that’s different but it’s still hard then that will be rewarded.”
Renowned as one of the most dangerous skiing sports Lynch says it’s definitely a sport for the younger guys with few continuing past the age of 30; ‘as it carries such a high risk of injury you kind of have to have a wreckless mentality towards it’.
A broken collarbone – twice, fractured thumbs, torn ligaments, a few ‘head hits but knock on wood never a serious concussion’ and a broken orbital bone in the face make up Ben’s injury shortlist. An old knee injury flared up last October while competing in New Zealand at the World Cup and forced him to sit out a couple of events but has settled now after plenty of gym rehab. Ben placed 23rd at the most recent World Cup in Calgary just in January.
His proud Dad Kevin; himself an accomplished rower with Trinity in his time winning two Henley medals, his mum Claire, and eldest brother Thomas who lives in Oxford and twice a winner of the boat race with Cambridge will be in Livigno along with most of his Irish relatives to watch Ben make his Olympic debut in the green of Ireland.