Chloe Magee represented Ireland in the women’s badminton singles at three Olympic Games – Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016 – becoming Ireland’s most decorated female badminton player.

At Beijing, aged 19, she became the first Irish woman ever to win an Olympic badminton match, defeating Estonia’s Kati Tolmoff 18-21, 21-18, 21-19 in the first round before losing to South Korea’s world number eleven Jun Jae-youn in the second round.

At London 2012 she added a second Olympic win over Egypt’s Hadia Hosny before again falling at the second round, to France’s Pi Hongyan. At Rio 2016 she did not advance from the group stage.

She grew up in Raphoe, Co. Donegal, where her father Samuel founded Raphoe Badminton Club, and attended Royal and Prior School. She was spotted by Swedish-based coach Tom Reidy at a training camp while still a Leaving Certificate student and, having barely played full-time for 18 months, moved to Sweden to train with BMK Watterstad – a decision she described as essential to her reaching the Games.

She subsequently returned to train in Dublin as part of Badminton Ireland’s High Performance programme, which her early achievements had helped to create. She and her brother Sam Magee won bronze medals in the mixed doubles at the 2015 and 2019 European Games, and at the 2017 European Championships. Her brother Dan served as Badminton Ireland’s Performance Director, and her niece Rachael Darragh represented Ireland in badminton at the Paris 2024 Olympics. She subsequently became Badminton Ireland’s first Women in Sport and National Development Manager.