GOREY SKIER SET FOR HIS TOUGHEST CHALLENGE
FATHER OF FIVE BRIAN DOWLING TELLS HIS UNIQUE STORY BEFORE HE TAKES TO THE SLOPES IN INNSBRUCK THIS WEEK
IT has been almost seven years since Gorey’s Brian Dowling first made headlines when he took to the slopes in the world masters ski racing championships.
He is now back and on form after three years of intense training and his latest challenge takes him to the slopes of Innsbruck in Austria, where he is one of more than 600 racers.
This week, the 51-year-old will be put through the paces when he races in the slalom, super G, WWMG Race and Riesenslalom. For this Wexford alpine master ski racer, it means that he can prove himself worthy to be among the world’s greatest ski racers.
‘For me, 2013 was really only the start and it has been a long but really rewarding road. Over the last two to three years, it has been a complete change. It’s really chalk and cheese compared to the person I was then to who I am now.
‘It has been a rock n’ roll journey with lots of ups and downs. Those downs meant that I really had to dig deep personally to get out, and that’s the way sport and ski racing goes.
‘I look back on the some of the stuff now and it was so bad, but at the time I had good people around me that got me out of it and taught me how to get myself out of it. We developed together to make me what I am now, which is a ski racing and training machine.’
Brian has learned a lot during his journey to professional ski racing, which began by accident when his son Joe took an interest in the sport, and he found out from other parents that there was a small group forming for adults.
‘I had only ever seen this sport on TV but I was really fascinated by it, I never thought of it as a sport I would take up.
‘But it started off with a couple of ski holidays and I had lessons at home after my son inspired me to get in to racing.
‘I was 37 at the time, and I’m competitive my nature. When I found out that there was a very small adult racing team at the club I joined that and it snowballed from there.
‘I was always striving to get better and bring it to the next level, even though I never wouldn’t have imagined myself getting to the level where I am now’.
Brian describes how tough the competition is, considering some of those he us up against have been skiing their entire lives.
‘In 2013 I thought I could race, and I had a couple of decent results but it was a real baptism for me to look at the standard of racing that was out there.
‘You’re looking at guys who have been skiing since they were two or three years of age, they’ve been on national world cup teams and professional ski racing with massive sponsorship behind them and things like that.
‘ They may have just come off the gas for a few years and got back in to it at the masters level, which is for those aged 30 and over’.
Brian said that the top racers tend to be from Alpine countries.
‘ That’s what you’re up against but I’m realistic, I know I’m not going to win.
‘You realise that you’re not going to beat these guys, but to be even considered good enough to race against them, it is massive for somebody from a country with no mountains and no snow.
‘Races will be won by one of the racers from the top nations but if I had a top 50 finish, I’d be really pleased or a top 30, that would be dream stuff.
‘Being there to see the speed and skill that master ski racers are capable of, you have to just stand back and admire, it doesn’t matter who you are. In 2013 the eldest was 93 years of age, and that does inspire.
‘Most even at 50 or 60 years of age are superb athletes’.
Brian has been through a tough regime to make him in to the competitor he is today, and the father of five had to make plenty of sacrifices.
‘ The sport has become a massive part of my life. It was a big part of my life in 2013 when I came back from the world championships, I wanted to say I had done that but there was a little niggle there.
‘I didn’t have a good year in 2014. I was intimidated by what I was up against. I had a lack of finance and a structured training programme that racers from other nations would have had that worked against me.
‘But I realised that so much of it is in your mind and although it’s physical, there’s an awful lot of mental skill as well.
‘Races are won on snow but it can be very easily won and lost off the snow. If your equipment isn’t right, if your mind isn’t right and strength and conditioning is an absolutely massive part of it.’
Reaching a turning point, Brian decided to start again from scratch and trained as a ski instructor.
‘I had to allow myself to be taken right back to basics and I knew then that I could ski when I passed the coaching assessment first time, all I had to do was work on the racing.
‘At the start of the season in 2015, I asked myself what I needed to do to get from where I was to as close as possible to where the best in the world are.
‘I spoke to several well respected people in ski racing in Ireland, and I was told that I would need to be broken down and taken apart, keeping the positives and working on them and disregarding the negative to rebuild in to a much better over all skier’.
Brian said he was delighted to reach a turning point after this in 2016, when he joined the British team that he now regularly trains with.
‘When I was a little bit down in 2014, I started to doubt myself and I would hear people making comments. I thought to myself, have I really got any business trying to mix it with the best in the world?
‘It took a lot for me to get out of that, but when I met the team I’m with now, all of that was pushed to the back of my mind by these guys who turned me from being a very good skier and racer to a ski racing machine’.
Brian’s training takes place on and off season, but he said that having the team behind him to collaborate with is a great motivator.
‘In 2016 I had a long chat with Ben Reid, a top ski racing coach at the time. His knowledge of the sport was off the scale and he organised a meeting in the UK so he could test me and look at me.
‘He agreed to train me, and six months later he asked me to join the race team.
‘ Training with the British Masters ski team was fantastic. They have a very professional set up and I linked up there with the guys from team GB, I loved being part of a team and they took me under their wing. We would travel, live and race together.
‘But Ben was responsible for lighting the fire within me again, and showing me that I had the skill and determination to let him turn me in to a ski racer, which he has done’.
Brian said that now he is known as a bit of a legend on the circuit, and he has a lot of people to thank from team members to trainers to sponsors.
But he feels it’s true that when you retire from this sport, you can say you have lived.
‘What keeps me coming back for more is that feeling when you’re standing in the start gate and you know that it’s you, the mountain and the clock. There’s no replacing that adrenalin rush when the eyes of the world are on you.
‘When I look back on this and remember those times, they will stay with me for that rest of my life. I’ve a massive sense of pride about that and it’s what it’s all about’.
Brian admits that sometimes it is hard to find balance, from his day job as a caretaker at Gorey Community School, to his large family as well as six days a week spent training.
‘When I committed myself to this three years ago, I had a long hard chat with my wife and she has been ultra supportive but we’ve gone without a lot to put me where I am.
‘It’s a structured training programme and my days just go from sleeping, eating, training and working as well as trying to fit in family life around it.
‘Specific strength and conditioning is where it’s at, so if you don’t have that foundation you won’t last.
‘Off season, I spend six days a week in the gym and during race season, I spend three days in the gym and three sessions on the slope.
‘I struggle to go out and see my parents Rosaleen and Joe Dowling every week and they live three miles down the road,’ he said.
Brian also runs the popular ski club at Gorey Community School, which takes up his time also from planning trips in Europe to ski days at the ski club in Kilternan.
Thinking ahead to after Innsbruck which he now faces, Brian said that he is still unsure what is next for him.
‘I hope that my result and the way it goes on the slopes in Innsbruck is going to reflect the work I’ve put in and that of the team around me over the last three years
‘If I can do that, come home from Innsbruck having performed to the best of my ability, I’ll be well proud.
‘For the race itself, weather can be very important as races can be cancelled but it’s just the way it goes.
‘As for what’s next, I just want to enjoy skiing for a while and I’ll decide in the summer time what’s next.
‘I have plenty of friends on the circuit, but I’m looking forward to being joined by my wife and parents for support in Innsbruck as this is the biggest race I’ve ever done’.