Ireland’s Ben Lynch makes history as he qualifies for Winter Olympics freestyle halfpipe final
Ireland’s Ben Lynch has qualified for the Winter Olympics final of the freestyle skiing halfpipe, finishing 11th in the qualifiers with a top score and personal best of 75.75. He becomes the first Irish skier to qualify for a Winter Olympics final.
In his first run, the Dublin-born skier finished clean with a score of 57.00, giving him confidence ahead of his second shot. Athletes got two opportunities to land a score, with the best score from either run counting towards their overall standing.
In his second run, Lynch threw everything at it, knowing that he had to go big to make it to the top 12, and landed a right double cork 12, a trick that he had not previously done in his training runs. Today was the first time he ever did two doubles in a contest run, and the first time he has ever landed two doubles in a row. The courage paid off resulting in a personal best score of 75.75, qualifying him for the final in 11th place.
Benjamin Lynch of Team Ireland competes in run one. Photograph: Michael Reaves/Getty
Speaking after the race, Lynch said: “I’m feeling unbelievable. I’m so excited. Really, really grateful to be here and to make the finals is a cherry on top for me. I’m officially an Olympian and officially a finalist as well, which is just mind-blowing.”
Today’s qualification was originally scheduled for yesterday morning, but due to heavy snowfall it was postponed to today. During the event the snow returned, resulting in slower and challenging conditions that caught out a number of athletes.
Being one of the taller athletes in the field, Lynch drew on the advantages that presented.
“I actually find in this half, half pipe because it’s so much bigger, I can go a lot bigger in this half pipe comfortably. So that honestly played into my advantage and yeah, I skied better than I ever have today and I’m just so, so excited to have made finals,” he said.
This evening’s finals in Livigno take place at 6.30pm Irish time.
