I’m tired of fighting but I won’t stop now
Elsa Desmond saw luge aged six and knew it was what she wanted to do. Now, prospective rule changes could affect her Olympic chances but this A&E doctor says she won’t be forced out of the sport
I AM CONSIDERING MY OPTIONS BUT THIS ISN’T THE END OF MY STORY
tion. She had started competing for Britain in 2018, after her father managed to find a training camp for her to compete in when she was in her mid-teens. It was to introduce budding athletes to winter sports and it confirmed her enthusiasm.
She progressed rapidly and competed with Team GB, but with the long-term plan of representing Ireland when she had gathered more experience and expertise.
Those plans quickened in 2019, when a coaching change in the British system prompted her to make the move and declare for the land of her forebears.
That was only the start of it, though. To compete internationally, there needed to be an Irish federation. Determined not to let anything get in her way, with the help of family, Elsa set it up herself.
That involved a mountain of administrative work and demands ongoing attention. That should give a flavour of this athlete’s dedication.
The World Cup season is now at an end, and Elsa is back at work this week after a rare week off. The next eight months are about working, savouring her life as a doctor, but also salting away a fund to sustain her come September and a new season.
She doesn’t know for how long she wants to maintain this extraordinary commitment, and is reassured by the knowledge that she has a fulfilling career to which she can devote herself when she walks away from the luge.
‘I’m very lucky at the moment that I get to have a balance,’ she says. ‘I get to work fulltime as a doctor in the summer and then I get to have this amazing sports career in the winter.
‘But certainly I don’t feel I have to hold on to this sports career in the same way I think that other people might, because I have that career outside.
‘I’m not scared of retirement and I know for athletes, transitioning out of sport is a huge and challenging time for them. I won’t have that challenge in the same way because I have my medical career, and I have so much outside of the sport.
‘I can very realistically think about leaving, without being too concerned about what that will look like for me.’
When she is in competition, it means weeks and potentially months away from home; she got back to her family for Christmas, but doesn’t anticipate that happening this year.
The season is an endless carousel of travel, training and competition, week after week.
‘I’m in a partnership programme with the Romanian team, so they have seven athletes and two coaches in the team with me,’ she explains.
‘I’ve been with them for two seasons now and it’s just been fantastic. I’m incredibly grateful to have that partnership.
‘But prior to that and during the Olympics, I was part of a team made up of small nations, so I was with Bosnia, Georgia, Taipei and Moldova, and we shared accommodation, transportation and coaches. To go and do this as one person just isn’t viable.’
Apart from the logistical and technical difficulties, the challenge of spending days in solitude would present great difficulties too. ‘My mum and my grandmother try to come to two races a year,’ she says. ‘This year they came out to the US and Latvia. Next season they’re going to do Norway and South Korea.
‘I’m very lucky they are such a huge support. That’s only been a more recent thing — in the Olympic season, I left home and I didn’t see my family or friends for five and a half months.’
None of this is relayed with a hint of self-pity or sorrow.
The more she talks, the more it becomes apparent that, whatever her frustrations with the authorities, she is not inclined to let administrators decide her future.
But if Milan in little under two years’ time is the goal, that means two more years of sacrifice and self-funding.
‘We can apply for one-off grants from the Olympic Federation of Ireland and I’ve been lucky that I’ve been awarded a couple of those, one specifically for me, and one for the federation for development,’ she reveals.
‘I’m also on the Olympic Solidarity Programme, which is funding given to smaller nations by the International Olympic Committee. It’s given to Ireland and they allocate it, and it’s for athletes trying for the Olympics. ‘It certainly offsets some of the costs, but there are a lot of costs that I still have to pay for myself,’ she says. ‘Unfortunately we don’t have any sponsors, although I do a huge amount of work looking around trying to get sponsors. It’s challenging; I haven’t been successful yet.’ A business or individual interested in investing in the future of a young Irish athlete could do much worse than consider Elsa, a bold, ambitious character who is giving as much to her sport as any of the stars that litter our coverage of the big games that dominate the landscape. She is sticking around for a while yet. Despite all, she is not walking away from the sport that once made a little girl’s eyes grow wide in wonder. ‘Absolutely not,’ she confirms. ‘I’ve always said that I will never retire because I’ve been forced out of the sport. I will retire on my terms, and to leave now would not be that. I’m definitely not stepping away yet. I’m considering my options long-term, but this isn’t the end of my story, not yet.’