Most doctors wouldn’t recommend turning yourself into a human torpedo and ploughing headfirst down an ice tunnel at rapid speeds, but Elsa Desmond isn’t most doctors.
What You Want to Know?
Who is Representing Ireland in The Winter Olympics
She is fearless and determined, and in the past five years she has qualified as a doctor and become Ireland’s one-woman luge team, with the goal of competing in the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing in 2022.
This is All Occurring During a Worldwide Epidemic.
I mean, does she not get scared at all?
“Of course!” She yells at Team Ireland, “I’m human, and you’re going downhill at 170km/h in lycra.
A daily commute involves dangers, so I figure you might as well do something you enjoy.
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When asked if he ever experiences fear, he admitted, “Yes, especially after I’ve crashed, but I work with a sports psychologist and utilise a lot of visualisation and meditation techniques.”
Now 24, she’s a doctor at Southend University Hospital in Essex, part of the British National Health Service, and training to compete in the Olympics.
When Desmond makes her long-awaited Olympic luge debut in China, she will be the first Irish athlete to do so.
How did She Manage To Get Her Medical Degree And Be a Successful Athlete at The Same Time?
Having a single-minded focus and wanting to use every available opportunity.
She continues, “I was always editing, sometimes writing dissertations in the car between tracks,” before mentioning that she did this while driving Team Ireland about. Before races, I would frequently bring flash cards and notes to review before the “start houses.”
Desmond, then eight years old, told her instructor, “One day it will be me” after watching the luge competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
Her teacher laughed, but young Elsa was serious, and so began her path to the Olympics.
Desmond, Elsa Olympic Aspirations in Luge
A lot of individuals spend their whole lives trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives, but Desmond knew from the age of 10 that she wanted to be both a doctor and an Olympic luger.
Initally, she intended to take a few years off to pursue luge, but with the COVID-19 pandemic on the rise, more doctors were urgently required on the front lines. Which is why she did both at once.
Her mother was from Ballyjamesduff (Cavan), while her father was from Cork; they both were born and raised in Buckinghamshire.
Insufficiently Fortified For Luge Competitions.
She was in her teens when her dad saw an ad for winter sports at a British Army camp, and that was a big deal because it was a challenge just to locate a place to attempt the sport.
Already an accomplished athlete, she suddenly found herself focusing on luge despite being a great swimmer and a natural with a hockey stick and a rugby ball.
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Desmond boasted, “When I set my mind to something, I can be really tenacious.”
The moment I put my mind to something, I see it through. So, I decided to become a doctor and I did. Why I chose luge over bobsleigh or skeleton or any other winter activity is a mystery to me.
