Sean and Ryan McAnuff of Oakville, Ontario, are in Calgary right now for the World Cup of Short Track Speed Skating, but they’re not there on behalf of Canada. Despite being Canadian born and doing the majority of their recent training in Sherbrooke, Quebec, the two brothers are the founding members of Ireland’s first ever national speed skating team.
“Ireland didn’t actually have a speed skating team until this year,” explained Ryan, the elder of the two, “they named Sean and I to the national team in July. “
More than just being named to the team, the brothers explained that they played a key role in getting Ireland a national, competitive level speed skating team in the first place.
“We emailed them years and years ago and it slowly developed from there,” Ryan said adding that there has been a long road to get the team established, not all of which he and his brother have been closely involved with. “(Our father) has done a lot of the work in Ireland.”
“We saw the opportunity and we all made it work,” Sean added.
Read the full story in Wednesday’s Record.