Sinead O'Carroll Reports from Bormio

IRISH SKIER CORMAC Comerford began his Olympic journey this afternoon on the slopes of Stelvio Ski Centre in Bormio, north Italy. 

The 29-year-old finished 34th out of 36 men who took on the gravity-defying speeds of the downhill alpine skiing event. 

With a time of 2.04.40, he was 12.79 seconds behind the gold medallist and over four seconds slower than the Ukrainian athlete in 33rd, but times don’t tell the full story of Stelvio. 

Known as one of the most dangerous slopes on the world cup circuit, the Cortina-Milano organisers raised eyebrows when announcing it as the site for men’s downhill. 

Describing the venue as “severe” Comerford said when he first heard it was selected, he was “a little bit taken aback”.

He also believes it is one of the reasons that there are fewer small skiing nations like Ireland competing in the 2026 Games compared to previous iterations. 

Off-putting for some, but a challenge relished by the Dubliner. 

“It’s been a pleasure to ride this slope,” he said at the bottom of the mountain. “It’s great I’ve had the opportunity to run this track in these conditions at this time of the year.

“Luckily I was here in 2013 and 2014 for an international race,” he told reporters after his race, but noted it was still his first ever time down this particularly challenging run. That’s compared to the multiple experiences his competitors have racked up at various world cup events. 

“On my very first run [in training] I crashed a third of the way down so that didn’t help my confidence,” he said. “It was nice to bring it down today. I know I have the physical strength and the fitness and the experience to be able to manage it, but it was just a matter of putting it all together.”

While completing the run is a feat – two of his competitors did not finish – Comerford did admit to there being some mistakes.

“There were a couple of mistimings on some of the turns which made me run late. I didn’t get as strong or clean as I would have liked and in speed [skiing] any of these small mistakes stack up and are costly. But that’s racing, I’m relatively inexperienced in speed so I’ll take what I get and I’m really proud.

“I’d love a few more chances on this downhill to clean it up a bit but I can be satisfied with my first try.

“To bring it down Stelvio is a huge achievement, coming from the artificial slope back home.”

Comerford, who first picked up skis on the dry slopes of Kilternan when he was eight years old, is competing in all four alpine disciplines: downhill, slalom, super-G and giant slalom. Although his heart remains with slalom, the sport he fell in love with on the Wicklow hills, downhill is what has made him an Olympian.

“It’s an incredible feeling to make my Olympic debut today in this weather, on this slope. I’m really proud, and the only way is up from here,” he said before heading back to the Olympic Village for recovery. 

“I’m a slalom skier. My main focus is slalom. My goal was to compete in all four disciplines and get a top-30 finish in slalom.”

The dry slope of Kilternan was a subject of much discussion among the journalists of countries with more storied histories of skiing success in the venue today. One finished her questions with: “Is there going to be footage of a pub going mad in Ireland on your next outing?” He puts the skis back on in pursuit of his goals on 11 February for the Super-G event.