Every athlete has their own different journey to the Winter Olympics. Ben Lynch can trace his trail to Milano Cortina back to several turning points in his young life, one of which might just as easily have directed him towards rowing for Ireland.
If it wasn’t for that old trampoline in the back garden.
Because Lynch is now entirely focused on skiing down a giant halfpipe of ice while performing several dizzying and dazzling tricks along the way. The halfpipe event in freestyle skiing has its roots in skateboarding, and the sport has inherited plenty of that skater attitude too.
At 23, Lynch will be making his Winter Olympics debut. That journey began for real when his parents moved from Dublin to Vancouver, when he was two. His father Kevin, from Rathmines, had already enjoyed notable success in rowing, twice winning at the Henley Royal Regatta with Lee Rowing Club, and then for a third time with Dublin University Boat Club.
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His mother Claire, from South Africa, fell for Vancouver first, and that’s been the family home since. Although Lynch is based in Calgary, a 10-hour drive away, and home to the only ice halfpipe in Canada.
I had a trampoline in my backyard, would do spins and flips, then I was like, ‘Why don’t I just do that on skis?’ And that was how it started
— Ben Lynch
“My parents moved to north Vancouver, originally on a visit,” he says. “And then my mom pretty much said, ‘I’m not leaving,’ so that’s what happened. As a young kid I didn’t know any of that, obviously, I was just interested in all sports, and got into skiing quite young.
“I’m one of four kids, and my mom found out that she could drop me at the bottom of the ski hill on the weekend, and pick me up at 3pm. And that freed up a lot of time for her. So [she] didn’t realise that down the line, it was going to end up being a lot more expensive for me to travel around the world. Because I loved it so much.”
Lynch did try out in rowing too, his father testing the water there after his older brother Thomas showed promise: “Like all my brothers I tried rowing, but I never actually raced. I just enjoyed skiing so much more.
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“But my original thing that I did was trampoline, that was where this all stemmed from. I had a trampoline in my backyard, would do spins and flips, then I was like, ‘Why don’t I just do that on skis?’ And that was how it started.
“On the trampoline, that’s kind of where I gained my air awareness. But it takes a long time to get comfortable, especially in the halfpipe. You need to be very precise, and accurate, or else you could get really hurt.”
His brother Thomas did stick with the rowing, becoming part of the Cambridge crew that won the Oxford-Cambridge boat race for the last two years. But once Lynch found his love of the snow and ice there, was no turning back.
“First of all it’s the adrenaline, obviously. It’s high risk, but also I think it is by far the best action sport you can do. Because you’re on the mountains, away from the city life, there’s this kind of calming, freeing feeling. And there’s a lot of style and creativity. It’s a very cool sport when you get into it.”
Most of the radical tricks in the freestyle skiing halfpipe – typically 500 feet long, with 22-foot-high walls, allowing for five or six tricks per run – come from skateboarding, going back to Santa Monica and Venice and the other Dogtown areas of LA in the 1970s.
US skier Hunter Hess has already put some spotlight on the men’s freestyle halfpipe, which takes place next week, when he told a press conference “just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the US”.
He said: “I think for me, it’s more I’m representing my friends and family back home, the people that represented them before me, all the things that I believe that is good about the US.”
After that, US president Donald Trump called Hess “a real loser” and said “it’s very hard to root for someone like this” – although Hess might have the last say on that one.
No such worries for Lynch, who is perfectly proud to represent the country of his birth, having originally tried out on the Canadian development team.
Lynch also knows well the risks involved, twice breaking his left collarbone in the same place, plus a few small bones in his hand and face. Still, nothing that holds him back. Only the 24 best halfpipe skiers in the world qualified for Milano Cortina, and Lynch believes he can make the 12-man final.
“Everyone does tricks a little differently – that uniqueness is accounted for, and will almost benefit you. Usually you’re going for perfection, that’s the goal.”
