Rhode student sets his sights on Winter Olympics skiing medal

A Rhode student has set his sights on becoming the first Irish person to win a medal at the Winter Olympics.

Cathal Nolan has already achieved plenty in his 24 years on earth. A Climatology graduate from NUI Maynooth, at present he is in the final year of his Masters in Environmental Science in UCD. He also runs a Facebook page, Midland Weather Channel.

In June, however, he is putting the books to one side and moving to the Alps to immerse himself in training in a bid to win a medal in cross-country Skiing at the Winter Olympics.

'In order to pursue a winter sport, realistically you have to be where the snow is, certainly the weather in Ireland is not conducive to producing winter athletes,' he says. Currently based in Dublin, he plays club football for Dromid Pearses in Kerry (he worked in the area last summer), having played for Rhode and won everything there was to be won in Offaly. He also plays football for the UCD Sigerson team.

'It's an ambitious one,' he says of his winter Olympics quest. 'I've always believed that in terms of athletes, I think everybody is created reasonably equally, it's what you do with the talent that really affects the type of person you become. From my own perspective, I didn't see any difference as to why Ireland couldn't produce a top class winter sports athlete. Cross-country skiing is one of those sports that once you have a decent technique, it's about establishing an engine that's capable of carrying you over the distances that's required and competing against the very best in the world.'

Always athletic, Cathal is a mountain runner, and based on various fitness tests, he realised that he had the potential to pursue something as technical and challenging as cross-country skiing.

'Growing up, my family would have been hard working, middle class, just a normal Irish background. We would have been fortunate enough that we went on a winter holiday once a year for 10 days, to Austria, and that would have been where the skiing element came in initially. I happened to be decent enough at it.'

Cathal started alpine skiing at the age of seven, but there's a 'massive difference' between alpine and cross country skiing, the former getting from the top of the mountain to the bottom in the fastest time you can, while the latter is long distance, skiing uphill and downhill, and it's far more intense.

Norwegians Petter Northug and Martin Johnsrud Sundby are the biggest names in the winter discipline at the moment, but closer to home, Cathal says there was only one other Irish cross-country skiing competitor in the Olympic Games, while now he is part of a team of two others.

'In terms of training, the athletics background and the long distance running stood to me, but really it's only been in the last calendar year that the idea has really come to fruition and I decided to pursue it full-time.'

Cathal contacted Snow Sports Ireland, but there's no government funding for winter sports, so Cathal is hoping to pick up sponsorship in order to pursue his dream of reaching the winter Olympics.
'Funding is available if you make an A or B standard time to qualify for the Olympics and then Sports Ireland come into their own. Really you're funding it yourself, if you're in that fortunate position, which most people aren't – it takes a serious amount of funding to compete at a fairly high level. So you're relying on sponsorship. I'm moving to a different country as well so you have to find some sort of employment that will sustain you while you're there, while training at a full time capacity.'

Training

On a weekly basis, Cathal hits 15 training sessions, that's a minimum of twice a day, in order build up his endurance to face distances of 10 to 15kms on the slopes.

'You're looking at five to six gym sessions per week, each session lasts three and half hours, on top of that it's an endurance sport so I'm working predominantly with cycling, running, rowing – a combination of the three. It's essentially running on snow depending on what type of style you're using, so yeah, the training is pretty intense.'

Just back from a week in Austria, he had the chance to fully immerse himself in the training, with no distractions.

'It's fantastic to get to get to the snow and build up a solid week of training. I worked with two Austrian coaches while I was there, who were checking on my technique and pushing me through training sessions. In terms of somebody who's relatively new to the sport, my technique is well advanced – to where it should be at the moment. Any of the feedback I got was very positive.'

'It's an unusual one to tell your parents, 'I want to be Ireland's first gold skier',' he admits, but parents Martin Nolan, Fidelma Doolin and sister Dervilla are fully supportive of Cathal. 'They know it's an ambitious project to take on and they're under no illusions as to the sheer scale of the situation in front of me. In terms of funding and in picking a sport that's really alien to Irish athletes. It's as ambitious as you can possibly get.'

Once the move is made this summer, either to France or Austria, Cathal will be competing at European level for one season, registering as an Irish athlete with the FIS, and then his times over the various different courses will be recorded. 

'Beyond that then, you need to pick up 300 points in an FIS calendar year, within a four-year cycle, in order to qualify and compete in an Olympic games. So for me certainly the first target I'll be setting is Olympics 2022 in Beijing, and then 2026. So the next 10 to 15 years is my window of opportunity to win a medal.

'It is daunting. Just to say it would seem unrealistic to many, but it's the law of attraction, if you say something out loud enough, and you keep saying it to yourself and you believe in your own potential, and you put in the work, it's only a matter of time before it does happen.

'It's really about becoming the best athlete that you can be and once you're striving towards perfection, that's really all you can ask for. At the end of the day, once you hit your own personal best and you do everything that you can in order to compete at those Olympics and win Ireland's first medal – again I make no illusions about it, my aim is to win an Olympic medal.'

- Any sponsors willing to back Cathal in his Olympic bid should contact him on 087 9723300 or email cathalgnolan@gmail.com.