Ben Lynch has become the first skier in Team Ireland’s history to reach a skiing final at the Winter Olympics.
The Dublin born skier made it into the final 12 on the half-pipe in freestyle skiing at the Milan-Cortina games on Friday, becoming the first member of Team Ireland to make the final of any skiing event during the games.
But who is Ireland’s newest Winter Olympian?
WHO IS BEN LYNCH?
Born in Rathmines, Dublin in 2002, Ben moved to Canada with his parents when he was two-years-old. He currently resides in Calgary, Alberta, where he’s trained by his coach, Rex Thomas.
At 12 years old, he began skiing in Vancouver, initially learning slopestyle skiing and big air skiing in Mount Gorse near his family home.
‘My original thing that I did was trampoline – that was where this all stemmed from,’ Ben said. ‘I had a trampoline in my backyard and I would do corks, and spins and flips and stuff and then I was like why don’t I just do that on skis, and that was how it started.’
HALFPIPE SKIING
At 19 years old, Ben switched to half-pipe skiing — one of the most dangerous types of skiing, which requires a high risk of injury and needs you to use your momentum to get big air, so you can pull off the tastiest screws and flips (did we say that right? Good).
Spending time in the Canadian development pathway, Ben chose to represent Ireland in 2024, representing us in the Calgary World Cup in January 2025 and finishing 23rd.
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WINTER OLYMPICS
Ben represented Team Ireland at his first Olympic Games this year, the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy.
He had two runs in the freestyle skiing semi-final on Friday morning — after the event was delayed by a day due to adverse weather and snow.
During his first run, he managed an impressive 57, which put him out of the top 12, which would have put him in the final.
A great final run from Ben Lynch, bringing him up to seventh for now with a score of 75.00
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) February 20, 2026
Watch the halfpipe final or follow live updates
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His second run fared a lot better, with him scoring a 75.75 and ranking in 11th; getting him into the final and becoming the first Irish skier to do so.
In the final, he stumbled a bit in his first two runs but managed to more than make up for it in his third and final run, scoring 75 and finishing in eighth place — a remarkable run for a first-time finalist.
‘It feels really cool, especially because eight is my lucky number,’ Ben remarked after the final. ‘My birthday is September 8, I got eight stitches above my eyebrow here, so eight has always been my lucky number, and the fact that I just got eighth, like, the stars aligned.
‘It definitely still feels surreal, but it’s sinking in a little bit. It’s pretty cool, because my last best result was 16th, so I halved that the Olympics, and couldn’t be more happy to be here,’ he added.
‘I think before this, I’d only gotten around the 60s in World Cups. It’s hard to get high scores in World Cup levels. It’s the best score I’ve ever gotten and I also got that in qualifiers so I’m just so stoked.’
* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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