In other strands of a super active life he flew small aircraft (trained by Norman Whelan), raced cars (& won), ran marathons, was a Ski Bum in Verbier, trained ski instructors for Britain & Ireland and was a negotiator both in France and Brussels as a respected neutral re international qualifications in skiing. In the process he gained international recognition with France for Irish qualified instructors.
Ian is of course the most amazing father having helped his daughters to achieve their own ambitions of representing Ireland in the Winter Olympics (3 Games between them). He was deputy Chef de Mission at the Torino Games in 2006, and Alpine Team Leader in 2002 at Salt Lake City, along with several other world championships, junior world championships and Small Nations’ competitions.
Together with me, and the co-sponsors we brought in, he gave sports scholarships to several promising young Irish ski racers, and supported them through training and as race support from France to Italy and Norway.