Hard work pays off for Ben Lynch as he finishes eighth in Olympic final

On Friday, Ben Lynch became the first ever Irish skier to reach an Olympic final. Pic: ©INPHO/Georgia Schofield

Ireland's Ben Lynch travelled to the Winter Olympics aiming for a top 15 finish in the freeski halfpipe. He achieved far more than that on Friday as he placed eighth in the final.

Earlier in the day, Lynch had made history by becoming the first Irish skier to reach an Olympic final. The 23-year-old, who was born in Dublin and raised in Canada, finished 11th in the qualifiers with the top 12 progressing.

“It definitely still feels surreal, but it's sinking in a little bit," he said.

"Yeah, it's pretty cool because my last best result was 16, so I have that at the Olympics and couldn't be more happy to be here.” 

Friday was stressful with qualification and the final taking place on the same day due to weather conditions. Errors cost Lynch in his first two runs of the final, but on the third he scored 75.00.

Gold was won by American Alex Ferreira (93.75) with Estonia's Henry Sildaru (93.00) taking silver and Canadian Brendan Mackay (91.00) the bronze.

“The third run, I was really nervous at the top," said Lynch.

"I felt very prepared, but obviously the nerves were on. My family's here, everyone was watching, and I hadn't landed my first two runs. But yeah, just tried really hard to focus on the run, not worry about the result, and I ended up landing it pretty much as good as I possibly could have, and I'm really, really excited.

“I think before this, I'd only gotten around the sixties in World Cups. It's hard to get high scores in world level, World Cup level, but yeah, that's the best score I've ever gotten. 

“The preparation, it was a huge part. I've been preparing for this since, I mean technically my whole life, but really heavily since October. I've had my eyes on the Olympics and I had a very strict plan to get myself to be prepared, and I think that's what prepared me so well.

“I think everyone was just really tired from this morning. It's very rare that they want run qualifications and finals in the same day. So yeah, people were tired. And not just physically, but also mentally. There's a lot of mental that goes into halfpipe because it's very dangerous.

“I came in here thinking I was not going to make finals. I was just going to go there, and my goal was to get maybe top 15. The fact that I came out with a final is unbelievable. I'm just so happy that all the hard work has paid off and here I am."