Patrick McMillan Q&A: ‘Sometimes you hit jumps that take you out 50 metres but you don’t really do this sport if you’re not a little crazy’

Patrick McMillan, 25, is a skier from Ogonnelloe, Co. Clare who races for Ireland in Super-G and downhill disciplines. A bad shoulder injury before Christmas means he is missing out this month’s World Championships but he hopes to be back racing in early March and is focused on racing for Ireland at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

Q: To borrow from Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh, Killaloe is not exactly a skiing domain?

A: Hurling was the first sport I tried growing up in Ogonnelloe but I took up rugby when I went to school in Kings Hospital in Dublin. I played wing and centre and made the Leinster U19 team and then I went to DIT and was playing for the college and U20 for Lansdowne. But when I realised I wasn’t going to make it in rugby I looked for another sport I could represent Ireland in and went to skiing.