Ireland at the Winter Olympics
Milano-Cortina 2026
A four-athlete team will represent Team Ireland at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, running from 6-22 February.
The team will fly the tricolour across four different competition clusters in northern Italy, contesting in Freestyle Skiing, Cross-Country Skiing and men’s and women’s Alpine Skiing.
The Irish team combines a mix of emerging talent and established experience, with three first-time Olympians and one athlete competing in his third Olympic Games.
1992
First Winter Olympics Ireland sent athletes
Meet the Irish athletes competing at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics 2026
Cormac Comerford - Alpine Skiing
Dubliner Cormac Comerford first encountered skiing at the age of eight, on the artificial slope near his aunt’s house in Kilternan. His Olympic dream began after his first taster ski lesson with the Ski Club of Ireland when he was 10.
The 29-year-old played rugby and hockey in school but continued to ski internationally, regularly travelling 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.
Comerford’s preferred alpine event is the Slalom, but he intends to compete in all four events at the Games: Slalom, Giant Slalom, Super-G and Downhill. Having competed at five World Championships, with a career best of 23rd in 2021, he is aiming for a top 30 finish in the 2026 Games.
Thomas Maloney Westgård – Cross-Country Skiing
Thomas Maloney Westgård is from Leka, a tiny island off the coast of Norway that boasts a mere 600 inhabitants. His mother is from Co. Galway, and he has represented Ireland in Cross Country Skiing at the last three Winter Olympic Games.
Although introduced to skiing in school, it wasn’t until relatively late at 16 that he went to a dedicated skiing school and became serious about the sport. The 30-year-old first represented Ireland in 2015, and has worked tirelessly over the last decade to rise through the ranks. His best ever finish was at last year’s 2025 World Championships, where he finished 13th in the 50km Mass Start.
When he takes to the start in Predazzo, Maloney Westgård will become the second Irish athlete ever to compete at three Winter Olympic Games, alongside snowboarder Seamus O’Connor.
Anabelle McCarthy Zurbay – Alpine Skiing
Team Ireland’s sole female representative Anabelle Zurbay will compete in Alpine Skiing. The 17-year-old lives in the world-renowned ski town of Vail, in Colorado, USA. She comes from a family of avid skiers, who via her maternal grandmother, come from just outside Moate in Co. Westmeath.
She currently attends the Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy, where she balances training and schooling. She is focussing on the technical events at these Games: the Slalom and the Giant Slalom. While not yet on the FIS World Cup circuit, Zurbay is ranked in the top 100 in the world for her birth year in Slalom, and notably had three top 12 finishes at the USA Junior National Championships last year in Aspen.
She will make her Olympic debut on the famous Olympia delle Tofane slope in Cortina.
Ben Lynch – Freestyle Skiing (Halfpipe)
Born in Dublin, but living in Canada, 23-year-old Ben Lynch learned to ski on Grouse Mountain near his family home in Vancouver. Originally enrolled in the racing programme, he found the medium too restrictive, instead putting his trampoline skills to good use in freestyle skiing.
He began competing at age 12, concentrating on Slope Style and Big Air, until he switched to the Halfpipe at the age of 19. He relocated to Calgary, where the only halfpipe in Canada is, to pursue his dream.
A broken collarbone – twice, fractured thumbs, torn ligaments, a few ‘head hits but knock on wood never a serious concussion’ and a broken facial orbital bone make up Lynch’s injury shortlist. An old knee injury flared up in October while competing in New Zealand at the World Cup but has settled now after plenty of gym rehab. Lynch placed 23rd at the most recent World Cup in Calgary in January.
Watch our interviews with the Irish Winter Olympics 2026 athletes
Ireland’s history at the Winter Olympic Games
Team Ireland first competed at the Winter Olympic Games in Albertville, France in 1992, when Ireland entered two bobsleigh teams. Summer Olympians Terry McHugh and Pat McDonagh finished 32nd in the 2-man event, and Gerry Macken and Malachy Sheridan finished 38th in the same event.
Terry McHugh, who has competed in four Summer Games in the Javelin and two Winter Games in the Bobsleigh, has participated in the most Olympics of any Irish athlete.
The first female to compete at the Winter Olympics for Ireland was Tamsen McGarry in Alpine Skiing, in Salt Lake City in 2002. This was the same Games where Ireland achieved the top result, when Clifton Wrottesley finished just outside the medals in fourth place in the Skeleton.
By the end of the 2026 Games, 36 athletes will have competed for Team Ireland across nine Winter Olympic Games.
Interested in learning more?
Olympic Federation of Ireland
Keep up to date with Team Ireland's progress on olympics.ie.
Stories of Irish sport around the world
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Ireland in Italy
Learn more about Ireland's presence in Italy, including our Embassy in Rome and Consulate in Milan.