Conor Lyne cannot describe the proudest moment of his life.
All he remembers is being nervous. His green coat lay taut against his body as the mercury on the thermometer hovered near 44 degrees Fahrenheit. It was Feb. 7, and he stood in a stadium of 40,000 people. He was immersed in lights and sounds as he emerged from behind billowing clouds, the result of a nearby fog machine.
His nerves soon faded to smiles as he strolled through the stadium with one hand extended to greet the crowds, the other wound tightly around a flagpole. For Lyne, the event was a flash, fleeting into the colors orange, white, and green — the colors of his country, Ireland.
He stood that night in Sochi, Russia, bearing the flag for Ireland in the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
“It meant everything to me,” Lyne says. “Being Irish makes me who I am. That’s all there is to it.”
Lyne, one of 86 flagbearers in the ceremony, was chosen by his country’s Olympic Council. He competed in alpine skiing, both slalom and giant slalom, in the games — representing both the Irish culture he was born into and the country he grew up in: America.
At age four, Lyne bid farewell to Ireland and moved to Utah. His father’s work at an Irish-owned facility plotted their map to Logan. One year after the move, Lyne and his brother Sean were among the first members of the Beaver Mountain Ski Team, learning to ski under the direction of former Argentine Olympian Ignacio Birkner.
Lyne’s mother, Anna, says she enrolled her sons in skiing lessons because of the culture in Utah.
“It’s a shame not to embrace what’s in your back door,” Anna says.
But Lyne says the Irish culture played a much larger role in his upbringing. Each summer during his childhood his family would travel to Ireland. He recalls completing the same schoolwork as his Irish cousins on top of his American studies. Anna hoped this would teach her sons about the culture, environment, and history of their heritage and people.
“It’s really important for us that you hand down your Irish traditions [and] your culture to your children so that they can do the same,” Anna says.
She and her husband left Saturday to cheer on their son in Sochi.
Lyne, now 20, plans to move to Ireland when he finishes his degree. He completed his first year at the U in 2012, studying mechanical engineering. After a two-year deferment to focus on skiing full-time, Lyne will be back to study this coming Fall Semester.
He first started training seriously in the past five years and has competed in two World Championships since. In his 2011 attempt, Lyne felt underprepared for the world stage and “stepped it up” for his next try in 2013, where he qualified for a second run of the giant slalom.
When it comes to competing in the Olympics, Lyne does not believe in the luck of the Irish either — he only believes in hard work.
“You do what you have to do to get where you are. Luck or fate doesn’t come into it,” Lyne says. “I’ve put in a lot of hard work, and I know I’ll do my best.”
Lyne competed in Sochi on Wednesday in giant slalom and fell during the race. He did not cross the finish line. Earlier in the week, Lyne suffered a shoulder injury in training, but he says it did not affect his performance.
His friends Scott Gerszewski and Patrick Eccles say no matter what Lyne accomplishes in the Olympics, they are proud of him.
Gerszewski, a junior in aviation administration at Utah Valley University, has been friends with Lyne since second grade at Hillcrest Elementary School in Logan. The two shared an early appreciation for girls and cars.
“Most kids at that age are still in the cootie phase, but Conor was the only other second-grader I knew that actually liked girls,” Gerszewski says. “We had a good time playing the field, whatever that means when you’re in the second grade.”
Eccles, a junior in computer science at the U, also met Lyne in the second grade. He says it was not girls that caught his attention, but rather Lyne’s language.
“He’s one of the few kids in Logan that would swear, so he became notorious,” Eccles says.
The trio of friends graduated from Logan High School together and were roommates at the U for their first year of college. They claim to do anything in the name of fun — boating, Jeeping, traveling, and especially skiing.
Both Eccles and Gerszewski say they can hold their own on the slopes against Lyne, that is, until he goes into “race mode.” Then, Gerszewski says, it is like trying to chase down, on foot, a car speeding on I-15.
Gerszewski says he replayed the opening ceremony “a solid 20 times” to watch Lyne’s performance.
“I have seen this kid work his guts out for over a decade to get where he is now,” he says. “It has been thrilling and moving to witness his progression and his wonderful accomplishments this past month.”
Eccles says when Lyne came out into Fisht Olympic Stadium it was “funny” because Ireland’s flag became tangled as he was waving it. He says Lyne made a face and muttered some words before the flag was finally freed.
“I think he was one of the more expressive flagbearers,” Eccles jokes.
For Lyne, the moment was expressive for his pride and culture. He took to the stadium, flag in hand, living in the moment and not in the memory. He may not be able to describe his experience — the proudest moment of his life — in perfect detail, but his friends have no such trouble describing Lyne. Eccles, Gerszewski, and Anna Lyne describe him as hardworking, determined, outgoing, funny, and jovial.
Lyne, however, defines himself with one simple adjective: Irish.
“I wouldn’t consider myself anything else,” Lyne says. “When people ask me where I’m from, I don’t say Utah — I say Ireland.”
[email protected]