{"id":347913,"date":"2026-02-20T22:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/347913\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T22:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:10:11","slug":"irelands-ben-lynch-finishes-eighth-in-freestyle-skiing-halfpipe-final-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/347913\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s Ben Lynch finishes eighth in freestyle skiing halfpipe final \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland\u2019s Ben Lynch has finished eighth in the Winter Olympics<\/a> final of the freestyle skiing halfpipe, with a top score of 75.00 in the final run, just short of his top score and personal best of 75.75 in qualifying.<\/p>\n

Lynch had become the first Irish skier to qualify for a Winter Olympics final after finishing 11th in the qualifiers.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old was fourth after the first run despite falling, but his position was more due to others falling also on the first of three runs.<\/p>\n

He improved on his second run, also stumbling, before a clean third run saw him score his best 75.00 and secure an impressive top eight finish.<\/p>\n

Born in Rathmines, Dublin, Lynch moved to Canada aged two and is now based in Calgary, where he trains under coach Rex Thomas.<\/p>\n

US skier Alex Ferreira won gold with 93.75, Estonia\u2019s Henry Sildaru won silver with 93.00 and Canada\u2019s Brendan Mackay won bronze with 91.00.<\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Benjamin Lynch during the Men’s Freeski Halfpipe Final. Photograph: David Davies\/PA <\/p>\n

\u201cEight has always been my lucky number, to finish eighth, my stars have aligned,\u201d Lynch said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe third run, I was really nervous at the top. I felt very prepared but obviously the nerves were on. Everyone was watching and I hadn\u2019t landed my first two runs. I just tried really hard to focus on the run and not focus on the result, ended up landing it pretty much as good as I possibly could have, I\u2019m really excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the Olympics, Lynch\u2019s best score had been around the 60s in World Cups, so the qualifying and final saw a big improvement in his performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the best scores I\u2019ve ever got, I\u2019m so stoked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the preparation was a big reason, I have had my eyes on the Olympics since October, I had a strict plan to be prepared. <\/p>\n

\u201cI came here not expecting to make the final, my goal was to get top 15, so to make the final was incredible, I\u2019m so happy all my hard work has paid off, and here I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferreira completed his collection of Olympic \u200cmedals with the win, having won halfpipe bronze at Beijing 2022 and silver at Pyeongchang 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cBest moment of my life. Easily. Easily. Blown out of the water. Not even close,\u201d he said, adding that the second \u200bbest moment was meeting his girlfriend.<\/p>\n

The son of a professional soccer player from Argentina, Ferreira lists Lionel \u200cMessi \u2013 \u200crather \u200bthan any other freeskier \u2013 as his sporting hero.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to be my last go at things and I\u2019m giving it everything that I possibly have. So I\u2019m \u2060praying to my idol Messi. I know \u200bhe\u2019s with me,\u201d he told Olympics.com this week.<\/p>\n

In halfpipe, riders slide across a U-shaped snow \u200bramp and perform acrobatics in the air. They are awarded points based on height, difficulty, variety of tricks, and other factors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s Ben Lynch has finished eighth in the Winter Olympics final of the freestyle skiing halfpipe, with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,19,17,132,48782],"class_list":["post-347913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports","tag-winter-olympics"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116105250388339030","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}