Five Irish Winter Olympic hopefuls have been handed financial support worth over €100,000 to help in their bid to qualify for Pyeongchang 2018.
The five are skiers Tess Arbez, Patrick McMillan and Kieran Norris, snowboarder Kieran (Seamus) O’Connor and Brendan Doyle, who competes in the skeleton.
Apart from O’Connor, who was part of a team of five who competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, all are bidding to make their Olympic debut.
The Olympic Council of Ireland applied for these scholarships through the International Olympic Committee Solidarity movement, with each athlete receiving grants of €17,000 plus €4,700 for additional funding to cover their transport costs to Olympic qualification competitions.
Doyle is a former track sprinter who now takes part in the skeleton, an event that sees competitors slide head first down a bobsleigh run on a sledge. He is a former garda and he says the financial aid is a big boost to his qualification hopes.
“This scholarship will make a real difference to me,” he said. “I was inspired to take up the sport when I saw the women’s Olympic bobsleigh team training at the National Athletics Stadium in Santry where I did my sprint training.”
Doyle had struggled to stay in the sport due to financial pressures. He suffered an assault working as a member of An Garda Siochana, forcing him to leave the force due to the physical and mental trauma of the accident.
He has spoken openly about the depression that followed and how returning to sport helped his mental and physical recovery.
Since returning to sport Doyle has posted competitive times which lead him for consideration for the scholarship. He added: “Now I can focus my efforts on becoming the best I can be and hopefully make that Olympic dream a reality.”
IOC Olympic Solidarity programme criteria states the athletes must be of international-level, practising an individual sport included in the Pyeongchang Olympic programme and have the technical level required to be able to qualify for the Pyeongchang Games.
Proof of the athlete’s technical sports level had to show through recent results obtained at national and international competitions and verified by their international federation.
Athletes receive €1,500 per month starting 1 March 2017 through to next year’s Winter Games should they qualify and each athlete receives €5,000 additional funding to cover their transport costs for participation in qualification competitions.
