Lord lays it on line for Republic

WINTER OLYMPICS: Johnny Watterson talks to Clifton Wrottesley, who has wealthy connections but is adamant that winter sports should by funded by the Government

Clifton Wrottesley may well have captivated the non-believers in winter sports in one short afternoon this week, but if the Irish system does not change in terms of funding, Wrottesley's dash down the mountain may well become a mere blip on Irish sporting history.

His fourth place in the skeleton, as magical as it was to watch, is no guarantee that Ireland will embrace the winter games in a concrete way. Apart from the US and Austrian sliders, money and funding were two of the principal hurdles in Salt Lake City.

"I don't know what I will do. I don't think I'll have the time or the money if I have to find it myself. My uncle was great. He provided spnosorship Chateau de Sours (a vineyard). But we won't be able to do it again without money, without Government or private funding.

"I'm not prepared to dip into my pockets again," said the 33-year-old, who was married last July in the St Moritz ski resort. "What I would like to see is the Government getting behind. We would not be able to survive for four years unless that happens."

Much has been made of Wrottesley's background, the fact that he is a lord and that the Schwarzenbach family that he married into is one of the wealthiest in Britain. His father-in-law Urs, a Swiss financier who founded Interexchange, Switzerland's largest foreign exchange company, has an estimated worth of £650 million.

Wrottesley, not surprisingly, baulks at any suggestion that he should tap his father-in-law for funding. "Why is it his responsibility to fund my dream?" he asks. "He was good enough to provide a physiotherapist for the Olympics. That was as much as I was prepared to take. I don't need to rely on that and nor should the Irish people. I feel very strongly about this," he says.

Relentlessly positive, Wrottesley is an affable individual, articulate and with a strong pragmatic streak.

"We've got to capitalise on the publicity now. I just hope something positive comes out of it (the fourth place). It makes me feel incredibly proud and fulfilled, but that won't last. Something positive needs to come out of it."

While the run came as a surprise to most people, Wrottesley hints that something was in the offing beforehand.

"No, I didn't think I'd place that high, but there were indications that my runs were strong. On the first day's training I was 11th, next day 4th, then an 8th, a 6th and a 7th. I was always there or thereabouts. It had cropped up in my mind briefly the day before the race. But I put it at the back of my mind because that's the sort of thing that causes nerves.

"My attitude was that I'd nothing to lose. And you know what they say - the most dangerous man is the man with nothing to lose. As well as that there was bloody-mindedness and maybe my upbringing. I hadn't an archetypal upbringing. You've got to improvise as you go through life."

Wrottesley, who was only two-years-old and living in Galway when his father died tragically in a car crash, was forced to move to Spain with his mother. He had been made a ward of the Irish courts as his father left no will. Britain, where his mother came from, was too expensive.

His father had tried to organise an Irish bobsleigh team in the 1960s but little came of it. The son, perhaps, has now fulfilled not just his own but his father's dream.