IRELAND’S BEN LYNCH has finished in a superb eighth place in the freestyle skiing halfpipe final at the Winter Olympics.
Lynch recorded scores of 39.75, 44.25 and 75.00 tonight at the Livigno Snow Park in Italy after making history by becoming the first Irish skier ever to qualify for an Olympic final.
“It feels really cool,” a delighted Lynch said after the final.
“Eight’s my lucky number. My birthday is 8 September. I’ve got eight stiches above my eyebrow so eight has always been my lucky number. And the fact that I just got eighth, the stars aligned.
“It still feels surreal. It’s sinking in a little bit. It’s pretty cool because my last best result was 16th so I halved that at the Olympics. I couldn’t be happier to be here.”
Commenting on his performance in the third run which was his best of the night, Lynch added:
“I was really nervous at the top. I felt very prepared but obviously the nerves were on. My family’s here, everyone was watching and I hadn’t landed my first two runs. But I just tried really hard to focus on the run and not really focus on the result. I ended up landing it pretty much as good as I possibly could and I’m really excited.
“Before this, I normally got around the 60s in World Cups. It’s hard to get high scores at world level. That’s the best score I’ve ever gotten so I’m so stoked.”
“I’ve been preparing for this for technically my whole life but really heavily since October when I had my eyes on the Olympics. I had a very strict plan to get myself prepared.
“I wasn’t prepared for a final. I came in here thinking I was not going to make the finals, and my goal was top 15. The fact that I came out with the final is unbelievable. I’m just happy that all the work has paid off.”
Advertisement
Speaking about the honour of becoming Ireland’s first finalist at the Winter Olympics, Lynch added:
“I wasn’t aware of that until earlier today. That’s amazing, I can’t believe it. My phone’s been blowing up.”
Lynch’s first run in the final didn’t go quite as he would have hoped, sliding along the snow after a slight wobble. But his performance was still good enough to put him in fourth place with a score of 39.75.
Andrew Longino of Canada was in the lead after the first run on a score of 76.50.
Lynch encountered similar problems in the second run, hitting the snow again while trying to complete a landing. However, he was still awarded 44.25 which saw him improve on his score from the first run.
American Birk Irving then scored 87.50 to take the lead and push Lynch down to sixth. Lynch then dropped to seventh when Henry Sildaru of Estonia became the new leader with a score of 92.75.
Lynch started his third run in ninth place and produced the smoothest run of his set, punching the air with delight to the roar of the Irish support. That brought him back up to seventh before eventually settling in eighth place after a nervy wait through the other runs to secure a brilliant top-10 finish.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
5 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
Ireland's Ben Lynch takes eighth place after making history to reach Winter Olympics final
IRELAND’S BEN LYNCH has finished in a superb eighth place in the freestyle skiing halfpipe final at the Winter Olympics.
Lynch recorded scores of 39.75, 44.25 and 75.00 tonight at the Livigno Snow Park in Italy after making history by becoming the first Irish skier ever to qualify for an Olympic final.
“It feels really cool,” a delighted Lynch said after the final.
“Eight’s my lucky number. My birthday is 8 September. I’ve got eight stiches above my eyebrow so eight has always been my lucky number. And the fact that I just got eighth, the stars aligned.
“It still feels surreal. It’s sinking in a little bit. It’s pretty cool because my last best result was 16th so I halved that at the Olympics. I couldn’t be happier to be here.”
Commenting on his performance in the third run which was his best of the night, Lynch added:
“I was really nervous at the top. I felt very prepared but obviously the nerves were on. My family’s here, everyone was watching and I hadn’t landed my first two runs. But I just tried really hard to focus on the run and not really focus on the result. I ended up landing it pretty much as good as I possibly could and I’m really excited.
“Before this, I normally got around the 60s in World Cups. It’s hard to get high scores at world level. That’s the best score I’ve ever gotten so I’m so stoked.”
“I’ve been preparing for this for technically my whole life but really heavily since October when I had my eyes on the Olympics. I had a very strict plan to get myself prepared.
“I wasn’t prepared for a final. I came in here thinking I was not going to make the finals, and my goal was top 15. The fact that I came out with the final is unbelievable. I’m just happy that all the work has paid off.”
Speaking about the honour of becoming Ireland’s first finalist at the Winter Olympics, Lynch added:
“I wasn’t aware of that until earlier today. That’s amazing, I can’t believe it. My phone’s been blowing up.”
Lynch’s first run in the final didn’t go quite as he would have hoped, sliding along the snow after a slight wobble. But his performance was still good enough to put him in fourth place with a score of 39.75.
Andrew Longino of Canada was in the lead after the first run on a score of 76.50.
Lynch encountered similar problems in the second run, hitting the snow again while trying to complete a landing. However, he was still awarded 44.25 which saw him improve on his score from the first run.
American Birk Irving then scored 87.50 to take the lead and push Lynch down to sixth. Lynch then dropped to seventh when Henry Sildaru of Estonia became the new leader with a score of 92.75.
Lynch started his third run in ninth place and produced the smoothest run of his set, punching the air with delight to the roar of the Irish support. That brought him back up to seventh before eventually settling in eighth place after a nervy wait through the other runs to secure a brilliant top-10 finish.
The Dubliner who grew up in Canada booked his place in the final earlier today.
Alex Ferreira of USA took gold while silver went to Sildaru and Canada’s Brendan Mackay won the bronze medal.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Ben Lynch freestyle skiing halfpipe Ireland Livigno Snow Park Olympics final Take a Bow Winter Olympics