Limerick Person of the Month: Oisín is on top of the downhill world

A LIMERICK teenager who won gold at the World Mountain Bike Championships in Austria has been named the Limerick Person of the Month.

Ardpatrick’s Oisín O'Callaghan won the Junior Men’s Downhill event during the UCI 2020 Championships in October. The 17-year-old made history by becoming the first Irish rider to win a rainbow jersey in any mountain bike downhill event.

 “I’m delighted,” said the teenager when told that he is the latest recipient of the person of the month award which is jointly sponsored by the Limerick Leader, media agency Southern and the Clayton Hotel.

The award was presented in the same week that Oisín was named the RTÉ Young Sportsperson of the Year for 2020.

The fifth year student at Scoil Pol in Kilfinane is surrounded by the sport of cycling - he lives close to the popular Ballyhoura bike trails outside Ardpatrick and his father Chris co-runs the Ballyhoura Trailriders bike and rental shop, on the 100km of bike trails. It was his mother Mary, however, who taught him how to ride a bike in the first place.

“From a young age, it’s just what I loved to do. Even when I was six or seven, if you asked me what I wanted to do, I wanted to be a world champion. In primary school everyone was asked to write down on a piece of paper what they wanted to be when they were older and I said world champion,” Oisín explained.

The big goal right now for Oisín is to be world champion again.

“I always go to each race planning on trying to win,” he explained. “You have two years in junior - I’m in the same category again for this year - but last year I was a first year junior and only five people in the world have won it the same age as me.”

Oisín, who will be 18 in May, is currently juggling his studies with his bike racing commitments.

Last year he signed a professional contract with team YT Mob racing, built around German bike manufacturer YT Industries and several other headline sponsors, which specialises in downhill mountain bike racing. The average price of a bike is around €10,000. He has full sponsorship in terms of his bike, clothing and training - “everything is supplied”.

 “For me it is a bit easier because I do less subjects at school. I’m doing five subjects,” he said of trying to balance both school and cycling. “The most school work I ever have is four hours a day. We have a proper gym with everything I need at home in a garage we built. It has squat racks, mirrors and everything I need, all the machines. I have time then during the day to still go training. During the weekdays it might be an hour and a half doing gym work and another half hour doing sprints on the bike and then at the weekend I would be on my bike up the mountain practicing, doing long distance and building mileage. I do have a bike in the gym which tells me my power and different things so when it is raining I can do my sprints inside.”

Oisín also has a nutritionist. “Most of the time my diet is pretty good anyway so he doesn’t have to change much,” he asserts. 

At the moment it is off-season with the first competitive race planned to be in late April. 

Thanks to his skill on the bike, Oisín has enjoyed many great opportunities to date and has visited numerous countries, with a race planned for America later this year.

Even when Oisín was in primary school in Ardpatrick NS, both he and his dad Chris went over to the UK and various countries in Europe to train on his downhill bike. Having the Ballyhoura Trails literally at his doorstep has also proven very beneficial.

Reaching an average speed of 60 to 65 kilometres per hour on the bike Oisín has had a couple of falls resulting in scratches and bruises but no broken bones.  His school friends are “really happy” to see their classmate doing so well and he has also made loads of friends across Europe.

And finally, what is it exactly that has him so hooked on downhill racing?

“It’s a mixture of things,” he smiles. “When you experience what it feels like to win, it’s that adrenaline, and then when you cycle down a track you forget about everything. It’s a sport that is endless - you can keep progressing.”