Southend doctor to be Ireland flag bearer at Winter Olympics
Elsa Desmond, who lives in Westcliff, is competing in the luge
Last updated 1st Feb 2022
A Southend Doctor will be Ireland's flag bearer at the Winter Olympic opening ceremony, which takes place on Friday 4th February in Beijing, China.
Elsa Desmond, who lives in Westcliff, but is originally from Ireland, will compete in the Luge.
She's very excited to have been given the honour:
"Just to be walking out under the flag, knowing that my family and all these people are watching at home on TV, it's going to be amazing. Really, this whole experience is a dream come true."
Earlier this week, Elsa told Greatest Hits Essex that the ceremony will be different to previous years:
"I'm incredibly excited and I will be very surprised if I don't cry. It's going to be different to previous Olympics because it won't be the full stadium. It's an 80,000 seater stadium, but the spectators will be very limited because of COVID.
"There's still going to be lots of support staff there and there will be select spectators, so it's still going to be the most amazing experience."
She also explained how she manages to train whilst working at Southend Hospital. Elsa laying on her back, feet-first, on a small sled, using her legs and shoulders to steer herself down an icy track. There are no such tracks in Essex, or even the UK, so she has to get creative with her training:
"We do lots of time in the gym and lots of power work, upper body work for the starts, general core for steering mobility and lots of mobility work. I actually spend a lot of time at Southend Leisure Centre on the athletics track - I have a sled with wheels and I can practice the paddling elements of my starts on the track by putting spikes on my fingers which give me similar grip as on the ice.
"Then swimming and running as cardio is obviously essential for sliding. It's just a combination of those things while I'm working, and fitting it around hours at the hospital."