Michaela Corcoran represented Ireland in the women’s C1 canoe slalom and kayak cross at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, finishing 21st in the C1 heats – just outside the top 20 who advanced to the semi-finals.

She and her identical twin sister Madison became the first twin sisters to represent Ireland at the Olympic Games. Michaela is older than Madison by one minute. Their father Mike Corcoran is from Glasnevin, Dublin, and represented Ireland in the C1 canoe slalom at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics – making Michaela the third Olympian in her family.

She grew up by the Potomac River in Maryland and won a bronze medal in the C1 event at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima competing for the United States, aged 17. She attended Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland, and studied biochemistry at the University of Miami. She began representing Ireland in 2021 and was a regular semi-finalist at age-group European and World Championships. Her qualification for Paris came via a late quota re-allocation just three weeks before the Games.

She specialises in the C1 – the single-blade canoe discipline – in contrast to her sister Madison who competes in the K1 kayak.