When Dubliner Cormac Comerford takes to the Alpine slopes of Bormio at the 25th Winter Olympiad it will be the realisation of a dream twenty years in the making.
The Glenageary native first encountered the sport by chance at the age of eight.
“My Auntie lives in the Kilternan area so we were close by and just went for a look at the artificial slope for something to do. Somebody convinced us to stick on the long sleeves and long trousers and give it a whack; I was really enthralled by the whole sport. When I was around 10 we would have done a taster ski lesson up in in the Ski club there before going on our first ski holiday to Austria, and I’ve been just madly obsessed with it ever since!”
The twenty nine year old went to the Harold National School in Glasthule, and then onto Newpark Comprehensive in Blackrock, where he also played lots of rugby and hockey, alongside football and hurling for local club Cuala. All the while he was continuing to ski internationally regularly traveling to France for training before joining a well-established British racing circuit in the Alps. At the age of 16 he actually raced the slope they will be competing on in Bormio; considered the most dangerous downhill slope on the FIS World Cup circuit. For the last number of years he has wintered in the same region in Italy where the Games are taking place, training and competing there.
Regarding Kilternan and the Ski Club of Ireland Comerford feels like he has a lot to thank the racing programme there for.
“Ronan and Conor Columb were up there and skiing internationally at the time I started, as well as Shane O’Connor. They really helped drive on those programmes, it was a good time to be at the club and they really fostered the love and the drive for the sport. I was really lucky to have that there because without it I wouldn’t be here.
The last couple of years I’ve been involved up there coaching. After the 2022 Games I took two years away from the sport – I was graduating, I was trying to set up a bit of a life for myself so I was up at the club coaching a lot. They have been really good during qualification; I owe them a lot. It’s kind of full circle. When I joined Shane O’Connor would have been competing at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and I remember watching him on the TV imagining skiing like that, so it’s kind of full circle now me going, I’m very proud.”
A graduate of Mechanical Engineering from DIT Cormac has been working full time with Atlantic Projects Company in Limerick for almost two years; a job he got through the Sport Ireland Athlete Friendly Employee Network. While he spends a lot of time working on their various sites around the country, they have also afforded him the necessary time off to secure Olympic qualification, and have been nothing but supportive of his ski career.
Cormac’s preferred alpine event is the slalom but all going well he intends to do all four at the Games; the Slalom, Giant slalom, Super-G, and Downhill. Team Ireland Head Coach Giorgio Marchesini who he has worked with for many years will be by his side in Bormino.
“Giorgio has been a huge help really to pull me through, to keep me on skis; it’s been really challenging at times but thanks to a lot of people it’s worked out, and I’m very proud.”
Comerford joined up in a team of four other skiers from emerging nations in Austria this season in preparation for the Games. Collectively known as the ‘Untitled’ Ski team they pool their resources to access regular coaching, physio and other supports, he feels it has pushed him on in training and been beneficial across the board. Having competed at five World Championships in his career with a best of 23rd in 2021, and a top 30 in the European Cup in 2024, racing at the Olympics will be the ‘cherry on the cake’ for the 29-year old Dubliner. Comerford has previously stated a big goal for these Games would be a top 30 finish; something that he thinks would be a great achievement for him.
A sizeable Irish travelling contingent, which Comerford says is ‘growing by the day’, will be in Bormio for the occasion. Led by his mother Anna, dad Lyle, twin brother Lorcan and younger sister Áine, they will all be there to witness everything come full circle when he makes his Olympic debut.