On the slippery slopes to Olympic glory

TWENTY-YEAR-OLD Conor Lyne is a man who seems at ease with his destiny. Despite his somewhat internationally mixed upbringing (born in England, brought up in the USA), there was never a shadow of a doubt as to what country he would represent if he got the opportunity.

He speaks with an accent that is a lot less Americanised than many of his fellow Irishmen, and he says himself that he wouldn’t consider himself “even a slight bit American”.

Conor’s father is from Brandon in Kerry and his mother is a Limerick woman from Hospital. When their employers — a Dutch dairy-industry company — opened a base in Utah, the Lyne family all moved to the Mormon state when Conor was just four years old.