The opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics is fast approaching and the buzz surrounding Team Ireland’s prospects in Paris has been building steadily ahead of the games.
Of the record-breaking 133 athletes flying the Irish flag in the French capital, a sizable percentage will be aiming for medals in water-based events, and those athletes are the focus of the latest entry in our Team Ireland Olympic Squad profile series.
At the last summer games in Tokyo, Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan claimed gold medals in the men’s lightweight double sculls, four years after Paul and his brother Gary “pulled like dogs” and charmed the world en route to rowing for silver in Rio. Below, we’ve taken a closer look at the athletes aiming to emulate the Cork duo’s success in 2024.
Tonybet is excited to introduce our athletes competing in rowing, canoeing, sailing and swimming disciplines for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.
Canoeing
Liam Jegou
Event: C1 slalom, kayak cross
The Kayak Cross event is a new entry in the Olympics this year and Liam Jegou is one of four Irish combatants hoping to make a splash in the discipline’s debut. He finished 15th in a C1 race at the Tokyo games, and the 28-year-old warmed up for Paris by reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup in Prague.
Noel Hendrick
Event: K1 slalom, kayak cross
Noel Hendrick vied with twin brother and former C2 double partner Robert for a qualification spot at the Olympics at the 2023 World Championships. However, Noel was the successful sibling, finishing 16th and earning his place in Paris having just missed out on qualifying for the Tokyo games in 2020.
Madison Corcoran
Event: K1 slalom, kayak cross
Madison Corcoran’s father Mike was an Irish Olympian in Barcelona (1992) and Atlanta (1996), and she competes at this summer’s games alongside her twin sister Michaela. When Madison finished 23rd at the 2023 European Games to claim her berth, she became the first Irish female canoeist to qualify for the Olympics since Hannah Craig in 2012.
Michaela Corcoran
Event: C1 slalom, kayak cross
A late addition to the Team Ireland squad after a quota increase, 21-year-old Michaela Corcoran made her Irish debut at the Europeans in 2021, and the consistent performer came within a whisker of reaching the final of the World U23 Slalom Championships in Liptovský, Slovakia in early July when she finished in 14th position.
Rowing
Paul O’Donovan
Event: men’s lightweight double sculls
Returning to compete at the Olympics for the third time, Paul O’Donovan will be determined to add to the silver and gold medals he won at Rio and Tokyo respectively when he rows again in Paris. The six-time world champion will be targeting more gold in France with partner Fintan McCarthy. This duo represents one of Ireland’s best medal prospects this summer.
Fintan McCarthy
Event: men’s lightweight double sculls
27-year-old Skibbereen man Fintan McCarthy won his first national title in 2016 just four years after he first started rowing, having been inspired to try the sport after the London Olympics in 2012. A gold medal winner alongside O’Donovan in Tokyo, McCarthy also enjoyed success alongside his partner in the World Championships last September, when gold medals were secured again.
Aoife Casey
Event: women’s lightweight double sculls
Another member of the remarkable Skibbereen contingent, Aoife Casey will partner up with Mags Cremen in the women’s lightweight double culls event in Paris. The pair finished in an impressive fifth place at the final of the World Cup II in April, though 25-year-old Casey, alongside Cremen, will be aiming to go one better in Paris. Casey’s father Dominic is on the Irish lightweight rowing coaching staff.
Mags Cremen
Event: women’s lightweight double sculls
Margaret ‘Mags’ Cremen competed alongside Aoife Casey at the Tokyo Olympics when the rowers were just 21 and 22 respectively, though they should arrive in Paris as a more battle-hardened pair. Cremen finished second at the European Championships in April in the lightweight single sculls, though it was her push to second in the ‘B’ final at the World Rowing Championships in Belgrade with Casey in 2023 that earned her qualification for the 2024 Olympics.
Phil Doyle
Event: men’s double sculls
Phil Doyle picked up the oar when studying medicine at Queen’s University in 2014, making him a latecomer to the discipline, though he is competing at his second successive Olympics this summer, having placed 10th with Ronan Byrne at Tokyo 2020. A World Championship silver medallist in 2018, Doyle has been sharing a canoe with Daire Lynch since 2023.
Daire Lynch
Event: men’s double sculls
Tipperary’s Daire Lynch will make his Olympic debut in Paris, and the 2021 National Championship single sculls winner makes up a formidable double act alongside Phil Doyle. 26-year-old Lynch beat both the O’Donovan and McCarthey brothers to that title three years ago, proving that he has the mettle to cut through the water on the biggest stage.
Alison Bergin
Event: women’s double sculls
Alison Bergin, who is another Cork representative, is just 22, though she has already enjoyed plenty of success in the singles sphere, winning gold at the Junior Europeans in 2023. The Olympic debutant’s partnership with Zoe Hyde is still relatively new, having been formed last year, though they upset the odds to finish fourth at the World Championships in 2023, securing their place at the Olympics in the process.
Zoe Hyde
Event: women’s double sculls
Zoe Hyde is five years older than Alison Bergin, though the 27-year-old will also make her Olympic bow in Paris. Hailing from Kerry, Hyde made the transition to elite-level rowing when she stepped up her training during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Hyde was a bronze medal winner at the World Championships in 2022 with former doubles partner Sanita Puspure.
Ross Corrigan
Event: men’s coxless pair
Enniskillen man Ross Corrigan partners with fellow Fermanagh native and clubmate Nathan Timoney for the men’s coxless pair event. The 25-year-old has been friends with Timoney since the two were teenagers, though they only teamed up in 2022. Corrigan and Timoney made the podium at the World Championships in 2023 to gain qualification for this summer’s Olympics.
Nathan Timoney
Event: men’s coxless pair
A bronze medallist alongside Ross Corrigan at the 2023 World Championships, Nathan Timoney also landed first place with his partner in the ‘B’ Final of the World Cup in April earlier this year. Timoney was a promising hurler for Fermanagh before he decided to dedicate his time to rowing. The 23-year-old is currently studying Business Management at Queen’s University in Belfast.
Fiona Murtagh
Event: women’s coxless pair
Fiona Murtagh had a taste of Olympic glory when she claimed a bronze medal with three teammates in the women’s coxless four event at Tokyo in 2024. The Galwegian athlete pairs up with her boatmate from that success, Aifric Keogh, in the women’s coxless pair discipline in Paris. Murtagh is a former two-time Head of The Charles Regatta winner and Irish Rowing Championships title holder.
Aifric Keogh
Event: women’s coxless pair
Aifric Keogh has been rowing alongside Fiona Murtagh since September 2023 when the duo pulled to fourth place at the World Championships. The 32-year-old Olympic bronze medallist was named as the Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman for July 2021 alongside her fellow Tokyo Olympians. Like Murtagh, Keogh hails from Galway, though she currently rows for the Cork College Club in the south west.
Eimear Lambe
Event: women’s coxless four
Eimear Lambe will share a boat with three teammates in the women’s coxless four event in Paris. The 26-year-old, who was raised in Dublin’s Cabra, comes from a sporting family and her sister, Claire, was a trailblazing Olympian when she became one of the first Irish rowing female finalists in Rio 2016. Lambe was part of the Irish foursome that won bronze at the games in Tokyo.
Emily Hegarty
Event: women’s coxless four
Yet another rowing athlete from Cork’s Skibbereen, Emily Hegarty was a member of the women’s quartet that made the podium in Tokyo. Injury prevented the 26-year-old from competing across the entire 2023 campaign, though she returned in time to make the Olympic qualifying regatta in Switzerland in June, when a place at the games in Paris was secured.
Natalie Long
Event: women’s coxless four
Natalie Long was denied her shot at Olympic glory four years ago due to injury, though the 2022 European Championships silver medal winner will finally see her dream realised in Paris. Born in South Africa, Long qualified to row for Ireland through her Irish grandparents and she honed her love for the sport following her move to Cobh in 2007.
Imogen Magner
Event: women’s coxless four
Imogen Magner was an avid tennis player in her youth, though she turned to rowing in Barcelona in 2016 having spent time on the tennis courts of Spanish academies. Magner, who was born in England, qualifies for Ireland through her grandfather, and she made the switch in 2022 having already been part of the Great Britain development programme for rowing. Magner won the ‘B’ Final at the European Championships with Natalie Long in 2023, and she will sit with Long and two others in the women’s fours event in Paris.
Sailing
Eve McMahon
Event: ILCA 6
Nominated for the RTE Young Sportsperson of the Year award in 2023, Eve McMahon was a star at junior level and retained her Under-21 World Championship title in Portugal at the beginning of July. The 20-year-old is the only Irish athlete competing in the senior class races at the Olympics in Paris, though this is very unlikely to be her only appearance at the games.
Finn Lynch
Event: ILCA 7
Finn Lynch returns for a second attempt at the Olympics, having represented Ireland at the games in Rio back in 2016 as a raw 20-year-old. Lynch failed to make the cut for Tokyo, though he claimed a spot for the ILCA event in Paris with room to spare thanks to a convincing regatta win. The Kilkenny man is currently in seventh place in the Olympic rankings and is a genuine medal hopeful this summer.
Robert Dickson
Event: 49er
26-year-old Skerries athlete Robert Dickson has been competing at national level in Ireland since the age of 10, and he returns to the Olympic stage for the second successive games with boatmate and former schoolmate Sean Waddilove in Paris. The duo, who have been sailing together for a decade, finished 13th in Tokyo in 2021, though they did suffer a controversial disqualification due to harness weight in Japan.
Sean Waddilove
Event: 49er
Like Robert Dickson, Sean Waddilove has been competing at a high level for years, first representing Ireland on the international scene at the age of 12. The Skerries native pushed the Irish boat to Olympic qualification with Dickson thanks to the pair’s fifth-place finish in the Europeans in October last year. The 25-year-old is firm friends with Dickson and they even spent transition year together in La Rochelle during their schooldays.
Swimming
Daniel Wiffen
Event: 800m free, 1,500m free, 10km open water marathon
21-year-old Daniel Wiffen will make history in Paris as Ireland’s first-ever open water swimmer at the Olympics. Armagh-born Wiffen won both the 800m and 1,500m freestyle events at the 2024 World Championships in Doha, becoming the first Irish athlete to achieve the feat, while he was also part of the Irish contingent in the water in Tokyo four years ago. Irish record holder Wiffen is expected to make waves in France this summer.
Mona McSharry
Event: 100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke, 4x100m medley relay
Mona McSharry is another Irish history maker, and the 23-year-old entered the books in 2017 when she became the first swimmer from the Emerald Isle to win gold at the World Junior Swimming Championships. An Irish record holder in several pool-led disciplines, McSharry qualified for the final of the 100m breaststroke in Tokyo, and she will be determined to do her native Sligo proud again in Paris.
Ellen Walshe
Event: 100m butterfly, 200m individual medley, 400m individual medley, 4x100m medley relay
Another of Ireland’s top emerging prospects in the pool, Ellen Walshe set a new Irish record over 400m in May, topping Olympic medal-winner Michelle Smith de Bruin’s 28-year hold on the best time. Hailing from the Dublin suburb of Templeogue, Walshe finished 19th in the 200m IM in Tokyo at the tender age of 19, and an improved performance is expected from a more experienced swimmer this time around.
Danielle Hill
Event: 50m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 4x100m medley relay, 4x100m freestyle relay
Danielle Hill officially became the fastest Irish female swimmer ever when she set a rapid time of 24.68 in the 50m freestyle in the Olympic trials in May. At the same event, Hill also became the first Irish woman to clock a time of less than 60 seconds in the 100m backstroke, and the 24-year-old from Larne went on to land a gold medal at the European Championships in June when she scored in the 50m backstroke. Hill added a silver medal in the 100m backstroke at the same meet, so expect her to be in the frame in Paris.
Tom Fannon
Event: 50m freestyle
26-year-old Tom Fannon smashed his own Irish record in June to tighten his grip on an Olympic qualification place. Fannon swam for Team England at the Commonwealth Games before switching allegiances to Ireland, and he was a semi-finalist at the Europeans back in 2023. Fannon will make his Olympic debut in Paris.
Shane Ryan, Max McCusker, Darragh Greene and Conor Ferguson
Event: 4x100m medley relay
Shane Ryan (30), Max McCusker (24), Darragh Greene (28) and Conor Ferguson (24) combine to complete the 4x100m medley relay team. Ryan, who was born in Pennsylvania, will appear at his third Olympics having represented Ireland in Rio and Tokyo, while Green will make his second appearance at the games.
Longford’s Darragh Greene competed in two events at Tokyo (100m and 200m breaststroke), and he prepared for Paris by posting his best time of 2024 in the 100m race in Serbia earlier this year. McCusker, who attended US colleges Florida State and then Arizona State on sporting scholarships, and Ferguson – who bested 54 seconds in the 50m in the Irish Olympic trials in May – will feature at a summer Olympics for the first time in their careers.
Victoria Catterson, Erin Riordan and Grace Davison
Event: 4x100m freestyle relay
Victoria Catterson (23) is the current Irish 200m freestyle national record holder and was part of the medley relay team that placed 13th at the World Championships in 2013. Erin Riordan (24), who was born in Japan to Irish parents, had announced her retirement from swimming just a couple of months before rebounding to help Ireland to Olympic qualification in Japan.
Grace Davison, meanwhile, is the youngest member of Team Ireland in Paris at 16. The Bangor native competed at the 2022 Commonwealth Games at the age of 14 and has been a familiar face in the international arena since. Davison won a gold medal in the 100m freestyle event at the European Juniors in July.
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