17 December 2025
By Roger Kennedy
roger@TheCork.ie
Entertainment
Ireland and winter sports don’t go together naturally. The country doesn’t get much snow, mountains with ski resorts don’t exist there, ice rinks are around but not common. Irish athletes keep showing up at Winter Olympics though, competing in events most Irish people have never even tried themselves. Milano Cortina 2026 will have another small group representing a country that barely gets real winter weather.
Brendan Newby
Brendan Newby went to Beijing 2022 and he’s probably heading to Italy in 2026 too. Alpine skiing needs growing up on mountains, training on glaciers, having access to facilities that cost millions. Newby didn’t have any of that in Ireland, obviously not. He trained abroad for years, spent time in Austria and other Alpine countries developing skills away from home.
Beijing wasn’t spectacular for him, no medals or anything close. Finishing Olympic races in slalom and giant slalom is still an achievement though for a country with basically no alpine skiing infrastructure at all. Getting to the Olympics requires hitting time standards across multiple races, which Newby managed through racing constantly on the European circuit and just not giving up.
Shane Malone
Shane Malone competes in mogul skiing, that discipline where skiers go down bumpy courses while doing aerial tricks and flips. He’s been working up the World Cup rankings, not placing in top positions consistently but showing improvement at least. Milano Cortina feels it is possible if his progression keeps going.
Moguls need skiing ability and aerial awareness and the physical conditioning to handle repeated high-impact landings that destroy joints. Training happens on specialized mogul courses that obviously don’t exist in Ireland, meaning Malone spends most time abroad. He’s based himself in countries with proper facilities, away from home for long periods to pursue this sport that barely anyone in Ireland follows.
Betting odds on Irish winter athletes at platforms offering sports betting at 1Bet reflect the reality that medals aren’t happening. Qualification itself creates storylines people follow though, especially Irish fans who don’t typically watch winter sports but tune in when someone from home is competing in Italy. Long-shot bets on Irish athletes to medal or even finish in top half of their event represent hope more than any statistical likelihood, which everyone knows but doesn’t stop people.
Elsa Desmond
Skeleton is where athletes slide headfirst down an ice track at speeds that are terrifying. Elsa Desmond started the sport relatively late, didn’t grow up doing it like some competitors who basically lived on ice tracks. She’s been working through the international circuit ranks, posting times that suggest Milano Cortina could happen for her.
The sport needs specific physical attributes and massive courage, like a lot of courage. Lying face-down on a tiny sled going 80 mph with the face inches from ice isn’t something most people would try even one time. Desmond does it over and over, refining technique and building speed through countless runs on tracks across Europe and North America.
The Figure Skating Possibility
Ireland has had figure skaters over the years but not recently at Olympic level. The sport exists in Ireland, rinks in Dublin have skating clubs. Whether anyone qualifies for Milano Cortina depends on performances over the next year at international competitions, which is still up in the air.
Figure skating qualification is complicated and confusing, based on placement at World Championships and other major events. Irish skaters would need placing high enough to earn a spot. That means beating skaters from countries with way deeper figure skating traditions. Russia and Japan and the United States and Canada all produce world-class figure skaters like it’s nothing. Breaking through that competition needs exceptional talent and years of elite training that costs a fortune.
Cross-Country Skiing: The Participation Event
Ireland might send a cross-country skier to Milano Cortina, the sport is more accessible than other winter Olympic events. Needs snow and endurance but not the specialized facilities that bobsled or ski jumping require with all their infrastructure. Some Irish athletes competed in cross-country at past Winter Olympics, never with realistic medal chances but representing the country which matters to some people.
Cross-country skiing at the Olympics is brutally competitive. Scandinavian countries dominate it completely, athletes from Norway and Sweden grow up skiing the same way Irish people grow up walking around. They train on snow for months every single year, have national programs supporting development from childhood with government funding. An Irish cross-country skier is competing against that whole system with basically no infrastructure support back home.
The Reality of Irish Winter Olympic Presence
Ireland’s winter Olympic team will be small at Milano Cortina. Maybe five athletes total, could be fewer than that even. Compare that to countries sending 100+ athletes across all winter sports, the gap is huge. Resources and facilities and cultural emphasis on winter sports, Ireland just doesn’t have it like other places.
Irish athletes competing at Winter Olympics do it despite their circumstances, not because of them. Training abroad and funding themselves largely and competing knowing medals are statistically improbable, basically impossible. But they qualify through legitimate results at international competitions so they’re not just showing up for participation trophies or whatever.
Conclusion
Young Irish athletes who might be interested in winter sports see these competitors and know it’s possible, difficult obviously but possible. Without athletes like Newby or Desmond competing internationally, winter sports stay completely foreign to Irish sporting culture. Their presence creates pathways maybe, shows what’s achievable even from a country without any winter sports tradition built up over generations.
Olympics amplify individual stories, turn athletes most people never heard of into temporary celebrities for a few weeks. Irish winter Olympians get their moment, interviews back home, features in newspapers that normally wouldn’t cover them. For sports that get zero attention normally any other time, Olympic qualification creates brief windows of visibility before everyone forgets again.