Winter Olymics: An Olympic medal hung agonisingly within reach of Ireland's Clifton Wrottesley for most of yesterday afternoon before being snatched from his grasp in the final run in the skeleton event in Salt Lake City.
Never before has an Irish athlete come so close as the 33-year-old baron, listed in Debrett's Peerage as Clifton Hugh Lancelot de Verdon Wrottesley, who held the bronze medal position with a run of 51.07 seconds, before dropping out of the first three with a second run of 51.50 seconds. The overall result in the event is found by adding the times for an overall score.
Wrottesley, who was not expected to finish inside the top 10, astonished his rivals even tough he had been placed seventh in the training runs the day before. Even that run had surprised many, as Wrottesley had failed to qualify for a second run in the 2001 World Championships in Calgary, Canada, and was ranked 36th in the world in 2000-01.
No Irish athlete has come close to medal positions in the Winter Games since Ireland first sent a bobsleigh team to Albertville in 1992.
"I wouldn't say we are quite happy," said Irish team manager Larry Treacy. "After the first run we were very, very hopeful of a medal. It is an outstanding result to be placed fourth, but we were all so hopeful.
"I haven't seen the split times. He had an unexpectedly good first run. I watched it, but at the moment I've really no analysis."
Wrottesley, who was born in Dublin in 1968 and lived there for the first three years of his childhood, can trace his family back to 1066, and his ancestors' name appears in the Domesday Book. He studied at Eaton, attended Edinburgh University and went on to the military school at Sandhurst, where he became a second lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards.
"Sliders", as skeleton competitors are called, shoot down a half-pipe course head first on a railed tray. The course measures about 1,300 metres and drops about 50 stories throughout the run, and competitors reach speeds in excess of 80 m.p.h.
"He's a very determined guy," said Treacy. "The USA put in a protest over his helmet the night before the competition, but it was approved. They said that it was not safe enough. That was just to try and knock him off mentally. They always knew that the protest was not going to succeed.
"The top teams tend to protest and it was kind of flattering that they involved him. But anything like that simply drives him harder.
"He was pretty happy. When we came he was looking for a top 15 place, then it was a top 10. It was a case of whatever you get, you want more. After the first run he said there is a chance here. He was very positive."
Wrottesley was in Ireland before Christmas to publicise the team's efforts (Ireland also had competitors in the skiing, cross country and bobsleigh events), and he had secured sponsorship from a Bordeaux vineyard, Chateaux de Sours. He pointed out that to receive funding in Ireland the Irish Sports Council required 1,500 active members in the sport, while in Switzerland, where it is one of the national sports, there are a maximum of 400 sliders.
In the end, Wrottesley's second run in heavy snowfall of 51.50 seconds cost him as his combined run totalled 1:42.57.
He was edged out of the medals by Switzerland's Gregor Stahli in bronze in 1:42.15, with Austria's Martin Rettl taking the silver and his friend, Jim Shea, from the US, winning the event in 1:41.96.
"The fast times were the first five (down the track). He was 13th to go down and that's not a good draw. It is always best to go down on fresh ice," said Treacy.
Pat Hickey, president of the Olympic Council of Ireland, said that Wrottesley's heroic efforts should encourage the Government and the Irish Sports Council to change their minds in terms of funding winter athletes.
"I think this will change their minds, especially with an election coming up. If he'd have won they (the politicians) would have been out there all around him for the kudos," said Hickey.
