Sean McAnuff hungry for chance to represent Ireland at Winter Olympics in Italy

RTÉ News​

12 hours ago

As Liam O'Brien recently pointed out, two into one won't go when it comes to how many short track speed skaters Team Ireland will be able to bring to next February's Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina.
The other half of that equation competing for that single quota spot at the 2026 Games is Canadian-born Sean McAnuff.
Unlike his Australian-born counterpart who prefers the 1500m in short track speed skating, McAnuff favours shorter distances like the 500m and 1000m. Even so, only one slot will be available for Ireland in Italy.
Either way, the 27-year-old is not getting fixated on what progress O'Brien has been making during the qualification process which is due to ramp up in October and November.
"I would say I have more to worry about than just Liam," he says during a late May stop-over at the Sport Ireland Campus.
"So in that aspect, I'm not really checking individual results, more just looking at my own progress and seeing how much I can advance in the next five months of training and then it's the Olympic qualifiers.
"After last season I saw huge progression, not only in my personal best times, but in my consistent finishes overall.
"I ended the season with my best finish of the world champs and that was 26th in the 1000m in Beijing.
"So finishing the season with that, I'm looking pretty optimistic about a qualifying spot for the next Olympics."
The youngest of four brothers, McAnuff was born and raised in Oakville, a town in suburban Toronto, which is, needless to say, more a winter sport stronghold than what the Sydney-raised O'Brien would have been used to.
"That's why it was so easy for me to get started," McAnuff admits.
"There was a club in the town we grew up and that's where we started short track. Pretty much you can drive 20 minutes and you might see five or six rinks, depending on what time of year you're at."
And the Irish connection? That's rooted in Ulster via his paternal grandparents Rosaline and Albertovich Lancelot McAnuff.
"They're both from Antrim. And then my grandpa did civil engineering at Queens (University), and when he graduated in '53, he was looking for a job. And there were a lot of good opportunities in Canada. So him and his wife went over in I think '54 or something on a boat," he says.
A visit to Ireland 15 years ago sparked the process which ultimately saw McAnuff represent this nation and to try to grow his chosen sport here.
"I came back to visit Ireland with my grandparents. And we did a full tour of the North and the south here and that was 2010. So that's when we were like, 'OK, cool. There's no ice rinks here at all,'" he says.
"There's a huge lack of ice skating, so we got in contact with the ISAI, Ice Skating Association of Ireland, and they had some figure skaters. And we were aware of these little pop-up rinks that come around Dublin during the winter, Christmas time, and we heard that people just storm it and they pay a good penny to go skate there.
"But we got in contact and we said OK, let's go out. It's Blanchardstown actually, that little pop-up, that was in 2014, the first time my family and I brought a ton of speed skates.
"We brought helmets, equipment, we brought the pucks that go in the corners and we said let's introduce the sport to the country. So that was in 2014. Then we came the year after in 2015."
The first camps attracted about 10 participants of all ages and "quite a few falls" on the ice. But the "big step" came in 2016 when the International Skating Union granted Ireland membership for speed skating.
"This is my 10th season representing Ireland since they got membership and I was living in the Netherlands with my brother in 2017 and for about six weeks straight we came every weekend to host the camps in Blanchardstown, from the Netherlands, where we were living," he adds.
'I think that it proves our determination to actually build this sport in Ireland'
The commitment was real for the McAnuff brothers. Every Saturday, one of them would depart the Dutch city of Heerenveen after training at the Thialf training centre to get to Amsterdam's airport; fly to Dublin on the late flight, get picked up by one of the parents volunteering at their camps, stay in one of their homes overnight before running the training sessions on Sunday mornings and then decamping back to the Netherlands once again. Rinse and repeat.
"And that was our rest day," McAnuff quips, "So my brother and I would alternate weekends. We train Monday to Saturday and then usually it's rest, but that's not really rest.
"We wanted to grow the sport and I say I also wanted to. So we started something and a lot of people would think, 'Oh, you just wanted to skate for an easier country', because I come from Canada.
"But no, I think that it proves our determination to actually build this sport in Ireland and get funding for the sport in Ireland and offer it to children and show that this is actually a possibility. Right now, you might have to go abroad and train, but know that there is progress in the sport in Ireland and that was really important to us. So it was worth the sacrifice."
Since 2020 though, McAnuff and his Canadian wife Jess have relocated to Budapest where he trains with the Hungarian speed skating team, having forged a connection with them a couple of years earlier at a World Cup event in Salt Lake City when he was by himself without a coach or team-mate and they invited him to train with them.
"It was a really high level training team that I got invited to train with and it was cool because I was like the only foreigner on the team. So I was kind of bringing the representation of Ireland to Hungary and just building that relationship and going to fun events with the Irish Embassy there," he says of his new life in Budapest.
Along with his wife and through his church, he has also been involved in humanitarian work in western Ukraine.
"We even went into Ukraine during the war with generators and toys for orphans at orphanages and stuff like that. So we've been very involved," he says.
"Basically, we brought over, tens of thousands of euros of equipment. It could be 50 pairs of boots for people who need it, it could be (for) soldiers, could be anyone; generators for people who don't have electricity, or simply toys for kids. We deliver it to (our pastor's) warehouse in a big van, and then he brings it to the frontlines and to the places that I wouldn't want to go."
But the main focus for the next few months will be on trying to be in northern Italy next February, a Winter Olympics destination he has other - less important - reasons to want to spend time in whether he ultimately qualifies or not. Let's sat there's a reason the nickname 'Parme-Sean' exists.
"I love Parmesan cheese and I love Italy," McAnuff says.
"We do a lot of training camps in the north, like in Livigno and Bormio. They have really good biking there, really painful biking there, up the mountains and going fun on the way down, but yeah, I love Italy. So I love Parmesan cheese so more Parmesan, please. At the restaurant, they're loading it on more.
"My wife's step-mom is Italian as well and we went around with her last year to visit her family. Italy's amazing. The food. Quality ingredients, everything. I'm excited to go next year. If I don't qualify, I'm still going."