Colin Sheridan: Winter Games turns us all slightly unhinged, gloriously invested

Ben Lynch reaching the halfpipe final felt improbable. Ireland is a temperate island whose relationship with ice is largely limited to scraping windscreens.

Before the Winter Olympics, Colin Sheridan had never heard of Ben Lynch. By Friday afternoon, the was more nervous about the freeski halfpipe final that Lynch's mother. Pic: Ian MacNicol/Sportsfile

The text arrived just before half-past-three on Friday afternoon. “Irish dude in finals of half-pipe, rolling in five mins.” 

Any other month, any other year, it would read like the ramblings of a madman. But, it’s February 2026. It’s the Winter Olympics, and it was Ireland's Ben Lynch finishing eighth in the final of the men's freestyle skiing halfpipe. I'd never heard of Lynch before, but on Friday afternoon I was more nervous than his mother. It’s the Milan-Cortina 2026 effect. Or Winter Olympics Syndrome.