Tucker Murphy is set to become a three-times Olympian for Bermuda after qualifying for the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, next month.

The cross-country skier, who represented Bermuda in Vancouver in 2010 and in Sochi, Russia, four years ago, has reached the B standard in the 15-kilometre freestyle.

Murphy, 36, has spent the past few months competing in Kandilli, Turkey, and Seefeld, Austria, in an attempt to reach his third successive Winter Olympics.

He will travel to Pyeongchang with his father, Mike Murphy, the president of the Bermuda Winter Ski Association, who will serve as the island’s chef de mission.

“Tucker got the lowest number of [qualifying] points he’s ever had since he started,” Murphy Sr said. “The lower the points, the better the result.

“He’s doing pretty well and he’s getting towards the first cut-off for the top, top groups, so he’s definitely improved.”

Tucker, who is based at present in South Tyrol, an autonomous province in northern Italy, will train and compete right up until the week before the Games, which run from February 9 to 25.

Such is the gulf in resources between powerhouse winter sport nations, like Norway and Sweden, and the smaller nations, Tucker has joined a small subset of skiers from the likes of Chile, Bolivia and the not-so-snowy European countries such as Portugal and Ireland in a separate competition within international races.

“There’s a group of athletes he competes against at this level,” Mike Murphy explained.

“They don’t win medals or anything, but they have their own competition going.

“It’s among the smaller countries and it’s like the big race. Sometimes they let them go first, or sometimes they let them go on the back.

“It depends on the snow.”

A multi-talented sportsman, having competed in triathlon at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014, Tucker started cross-country skiing while studying at Dartmouth College, the Ivy League university, in New Hampshire.

He is equally decorated as an academic, as the recipient a Rhodes Scholarship for Bermuda in 2005 and has a Blue in triathlon from the University of Oxford.

“He likes to compete and likes to train a lot,” his father added. “The island is conducive to doing a lot of sports and he has had good experiences in the triathlon and running races.”

Accompanying Tucker and his father to South Korea will be coach Pepa Miloucheva and general secretary Sean Field-Lament.

Bulgarian Miloucheva was selected because she is a “multitasker”, according to Murphy Sr, and is particularly gifted for waxing the skis to ensure they are best suited to the conditions in South Korea.

“Waxing is probably one of the most important things,” said Murphy Sr, who, along with his son, spearheads the Friends of the Bermuda Railway Trail charity.

“The waxer always gets blamed if somebody doesn’t do as well as they should.

“They dump the blame on the waxer! It’s a real special talent.”

He added: “You can’t imagine how refined the whole thing is. The big countries have a meteorologist come a year in advance to try and predict what the snow conditions will be, so the waxers can get it right.

“This is what we’re competing against.”

Bermuda has been represented at the Winter Olympics since the 1992 Games in Albertville, France, where Simon Payne competed in the luge.

“It’s good publicity for the island,” his father said. “We wear our red Bermuda shorts and our blue blazers, and march with the flag. There’s a lot of different good things that come out of it.”

Bermuda’s traditional attire at the opening ceremony certainly ensured Murphy stood out at the Sochi Games, with Maria Sharapova, the tennis star, tweeting: “Bermuda wearing shorts . . . love it! 6 degrees in the stadium #OpeningCeremony”.

Matt Leseur, a Bermudian freestyle mogul skier, had hoped to join Tucker in Pyeongchang.

The 19-year-old earned the island an eligibility spot, finishing in the top 30 at the World Cup in Ruka, Finland, last month, but ultimately fell short in his qualifying objective.

“Matt did a terrific job and made a super effort to get there,” Murphy Sr said

“He was extremely hopeful and did make the quota list, which is quite remarkable.”

Tucker is only the third Bermudian after Payne and Patrick Singleton (luge and skeleton) to appear at a Winter Olympics. He finished 88th in Vancouver in 2010 before improving on that display with an 84th-place finish in Sochi.