A Tipperary woman made history recently, becoming the first Irish woman to stand on a podium at the European Freestyle Kayak Championships.
Clonmel’s Aoife Hanrahan took the bronze medal in Paris in the senior women’s category of the international canoe federation freestyle kayak championships earlier this month.
Freestyle kayaking is a white water discipline where competitors are awarded points from judges depending on the tricks they can perform on the rapid.
While freestyle kayaking isn’t currently in the Olympics, Aoife is hoping one day it will be a part of the Games:
“So our sport is still very much a developing sport.
“It was showcased in London (2012 Olympics) and it was meant to be showcased in Tokyo but with everything that happened, it wasn’t showcased.
“I think in future years, 100% but you should see the difference in our athletes from this European championships to the one three years ago.
“The standards and the development of the sport, it’s unbelievable, there’s new tricks, it’s getting faster, the points are going up, they’re getting higher.
“It’s still very much an evolving sport and maybe some day it will get there.”
