Ireland unveils six-strong team for Winter Olympics

Pictured at the squad training base in Innsbruck, Austria, are, from left, Seamus O'Connor, Jack Gower, Thomas Maloney Westgaard, Elsa Desmond, Brendan ‘Bubba’ Newby and Tess Arbez. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Ireland will be represented by a six-strong team at the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing next month.

Seamus O’Connor is the most experienced of the sextet and makes history by becoming the first Irish athlete to compete in three Winter Games while Elsa Desmond also enters the record books as the country’s first representative in the luge.