Ireland skier from Norway with strong Dunmore links
CROSS-COUNTRY skier Thomas Maloney Westgaard will become only the second Irishman to ever compete in three Winter Olympics when he competes at the Milano Cortina 2026 Games in Italy which start on Friday and run until February 22.
Thomas hails from a small island called Leka in Norway and is the son to a Norwegian father, the late Ove, and an Irish mother, Celia Maloney from Kiltevna in Dunmore.
It's his third Olympics and the 30-year-old will compete in three Cross Country events in Predazzo, located in the Val di Fiemme cluster. First up, it's the 10km+10km Skiathlon on Sunday (February 8) before the 10km Free comes next on Friday week (February 13). The gruelling 50km race, his favourite discipline, takes place on Saturday, February 21.
Maloney Westgaard first represented Ireland 11 years ago and previous appearances at the Olympic Games came in PyeongChang in 2018 and Beijing four years ago.
He has shot up through the ranks of the world’s toughest endurance athletes and finished a superb 13th in the 50km at last year’s FIS Nordic World Championships. From ranking outside the world’s top 800 Maloney Westgaard has made it inside the top 30 in the event.
Following a hugely successful few seasons, Maloney Westgaard competes as part of an established professional racing squad called Team Aker Daehlie - a diverse, international group which includes male, female and para-skiers from Norway, Great Britain, Latvia and Andorra.
“The difference from when I did my first World Cups eight years ago, is unbelievable,” Maloney Westgaard said in an interview with Olympic Ireland last month.
“Just going into the hotel at races, seeing all the superstars and stuff, it made you feel really tiny, you almost felt out of place.
“When I first started they didn’t know me and if you beat them they were a bit embarrassed. It was like ‘here’s this Maloney guy in the green suit, I must really be having a bad race today’.
“But now it’s like people admire what I do or find it cool that there’s this Norwegian-Irish guy actually up there, competing seriously and getting good results.”
Maloney Westgard is the veteran of a four-strong Ireland team travelling to the heart of the Italian Alps. Anabelle Zurbay (alpine skiing), Ben Lynch (freestyle skiing halfpipe) and Cormac Comerford (alpine skiing) are all first-time Olympians.
“I really believe that is one of the advantages of competing for a smaller nation, that we are so tight together as teammates and really root for each other. That is very special and anything I can do at Milano-Cortina to strengthen Ireland’s great team spirit, I will be proud to do.”