Madison Corcoran represented Ireland in the women’s K1 canoe slalom and kayak cross events at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, finishing 24th in the K1 heats and 32nd in the kayak cross.

She was the first Irish woman to qualify for the Olympics in canoe slalom since Hannah Craig at London 2012.

Corcoran was born in Houston, Texas, and grew up beside the Potomac River in Maryland, where she began paddling at the age of five and took up slalom at eleven. Her father Mike Corcoran is from Glasnevin, Dublin, and represented Ireland in the C1 canoe slalom at the 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta Olympics – the first Irish man to race C1 at the Games.

Madison competed for the United States as a junior before declaring eligibility for Ireland in 2020. She attended Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland, and after graduating in 2020 spent a year training in Slovenia, a hub for the sport. She made her Irish debut at the 2021 European Championships and secured Ireland’s Olympic quota with a 23rd place finish at the 2023 European Games in Kraków. She studies neuroscience at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and was competing as a senior student when she went to Paris.

Her twin sister Michaela Corcoran also competed at the Games after receiving a late quota allocation just three weeks before the opening ceremony.