YOU MAY NOT have heard about Seamus O’Connor before now but you will soon.

This 16-year-old is one of snowboarding’s most exciting young stars — and he’s representing Ireland at the Winter Olympics in Sochi next month.

Born in San Diego, O’Connor has been snowboarding since the age of four and is already a full-time professional with sponsorship deals from Nike and Oakley.

His mother is Russian and his father grew up in England but fortunately for us, his grandparents hail from Dublin and Drogheda.

“My dad thought it would be quite poetic if an American-born athlete could represent Ireland competing in my mother’s homeland,” O’Connor explained in Dublin yesterday ahead of his departure for Sochi.

Here’s a highlight reel from when he was 12:

YouTube Credit: illthinking

And here’s a short clip shot three years ago for ‘Lucky Enough,’ a planned documentary on O’Connor’s road to the Olympics.

Vimeo Credit: Eric Cannon

Ireland are sending a five-person squad to the Sochi Games which begin on 7 February, and uniquely, the team is made up entirely of diaspora athletes.

Birmingham’s Florence Bell is the other teen and one of two Alpine skiiers along with Conor Lyne, who lives in Utah but has strong Kerry roots.

Vancouver’s Sean Greenwood — whose mother is from Galway — competes in the skeleton while cross-county skiier Jan Rossiter was born in Cork and now lives in Kingston, Ontario.

Ireland’s team with Olympic Council of Ireland President Pat Hickey: (L-R) Conor Lyne, Florence Bell and Seamus O’Connor (Sean Greenwood and Jan Rossiter are not pictured – INPHO/Cathal Noonan)

The new US Olympic bobsledding suits are insanely tight