I'm Irish skater hoping to qualify for my first Winter Olympics – my previous bid led to me learning whole new language

The Irish Sun

4 hours ago

LIAM O'BRIEN'S mam and dad — from Cavan and Meath respectively — met at a GAA club in Australia.
And that is just about the only conventional thing about the speed skater's sporting story.
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Liam O'Brien is targeting the 2026 Winter Olympics
Credit: Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile
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He missed out on Beijing due to injury
Credit: Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile
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Winter Olympic athletes, back row, from left, Sean McAnuff, Liam O'Brien, Cormac Comerford, with front row, from left, Elle Murphy, Elsa Desmond and Thomas Maloney Westgaard
Credit: Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile
Many of us took up hobbies during Covid-19. O'Brien?
Well, he learned Korean, as the only way of staying in the country to train in a bid to qualify for the
He was bidding to emulate his sister Danielle who he had watched represent
O'Brien explained: 'I moved to
South Korea
, in Seongnam just outside Seoul, and was stuck there during Covid, so I ended up going to Dankook
University
.
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'I didn't choose it. When Covid hit, there were no visas and so my only way to secure a visa was through study and I decided to learn Korean.
'I wanted to train out of Korea and to qualify for the Beijing Olympics and that was my only option, to learn Korean and be there training.
'It's not the normal route, but yeah, I'm fluent in Korean now.'
That, unsurprisingly, took time after being thrown in at the deep end. He recalled: 'That course was taught purely in Korean, and I hadn't actually learned the language up until that stage and was given 24 hours before I had to do my first exam.
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'I knew how to sound things out, but I didn't know how to write them, so I spent 24 hours learning the alphabet and how to put them all together because it's different symbols where it forms one character. So that was an interesting afternoon.'
He has since followed his coach Lee Kwang Soo to Tianjin outside Beijing but has ruled out trying to master another language.
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Making himself understood was not the only challenge he faced during a lockdown in a foreign country.
He explained: 'I think everyone around the world was a bit isolated there with the quarantining and the masks and not being able to go outside a certain radius.
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'And you weren't actually able to buy masks.
'They had them on the shelves at first and they were all sold out and then they released that you could only buy five per week.
'You'd have to line up and buy them. But if there were none left, then there were no masks.
'Other places were giving them out, however you needed the Korean visa ID card and at that stage I hadn't gotten the card so there were a few months there where I was without masks.
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'My girlfriend at the time actually, her mother had bought some online, and she gave me a handful of them so I was using those.'
'There was an Under-16s Cricket World Cup, I think it was in Dubai at that time and I was thinking of coming across. But with skating and everything else, it just never worked out.'
The hope was that all of those sacrifices and challenges would be rewarded with a spot at the Olympics but this particular chapter does not have a happy ending.
He said: 'I was progressing really well. Unfortunately, nine weeks before the
qualifiers
for Beijing, I tore my ACL.
'So that was a big setback. I tried to keep myself entertained and not think about it at first.
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'I was given 12 weeks of no sport whatsoever, no walking, nothing. However, I was back on the ice within four weeks.
'And that was after being in a brace with my knee and not able to walk. I was unlucky. I missed out by one spot in the end. So there were 36 qualified for the 1500m and we placed 37th.'
He is hoping for better luck this time around as he bids to book his spot for Milano Cortina but the route there is not straightforward.
Although he prefers longer distances and Seán McAnuff, the other Irish skater competing at that level, favours shorter ones, they are competing for the one place and O'Brien is not sure what criteria will be applied if they post comparable results. But he remains undeterred, fuelled by wanting to follow in the grooves left by his sister, nine years his senior, as he first did as a toddler.
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He recalled: 'She went to a birthday party at an ice rink and just loved skating and kept hassling mum wanting to go back.
'And so she started ice figure skating and someone said, 'Would you think about doing ice dance?'
'So she went into ice dance and when I was born, I was just born into an ice rink, so I started skating at the age of three, figure skating, and then slowly moved into speed skating.
'At the age of ten I gave up figure skating, it wasn't for me, so it was purely speed skating.'
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PARTNER IN THRIVE
When Liam was 15, he travelled to the Russian city and watched his sister and partner Gregory Merriman — who welcomed their first child Myla Grace last month — come 20th. He said: 'After watching her compete at the Olympics, it really drove me to want to become an Olympic athlete as well.
'It was only after that that I'd really seen the goal and that
target
there in short track speed skating as well and really went for it then.'
It meant ditching other sports. Although he dabbled in
He said: 'Growing up, I was always playing
football
or
cricket
.
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'I actually went to a
school
for cricket, a sports school there and I was playing great cricket at the same time. I was a wicketkeeper batsman. I tended to bat at the top of the order but I wasn't very good at working the ball around.
'There was an Under-16s Cricket
World Cup
, I think it was in
Dubai
at that time and I was thinking of coming across. But with skating and everything else, it just never worked out.'
Initially, he represented Australia too but, as proud as his folks were of their daughter's achievements, he admitted his mother Mary takes particular pride that he now competes for his ancestral home.
He said: 'She loves it. Mum's always joked about — I wouldn't say joked about it, she was quite serious — but she always wanted Danielle to represent
Ireland
as well. However, growing up in Australia, we never saw that connection — not the connection but there was never an association to start with when we were there.'
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A meeting between his dad Seán and Karen O'Sullivan — chief executive of the Ice Skating Association of Ireland, established in 2007 — helped provide the pathway.
He said: 'We've kept in contact ever since and when the opportunity came up to switch across to Ireland, I took that chance and Danielle and mum and dad were all very supportive and well, they loved it.'
He is the only non-Chinese athlete in his training group and with McAnuff based out of
Hungary
, their paths rarely cross as they engage in a long-distance contest for an Olympic spot for which the rules are not entirely clear.
O'Brien said: 'I've no idea. That's all to find out.'
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