Ciara Mageean, an Irish middle-distance runner and European gold medallist who competed at two Olympic Games, has died aged 34, her family announced. She had been diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in May 2025 and had married weeks before her death.
Irish middle-distance runner Ciara Mageean, a European gold medallist who competed at two Olympic Games, has died aged 34, her family announced. According to a social media post from her family, she died on November 1. A statement on her social media accounts said she lost her battle with cancer at 6.30am on Sunday, surrounded by her loved ones. Mageean was from Portaferry in County Down, Northern Ireland.
Illness and final weeks
Mageean was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in May 2025. She announced her cancer in an Instagram post in July 2025. She died less than 18 months after the diagnosis. Her death came just weeks after she married her long-term boyfriend in Belfast. She had married her partner, Thomas Moran, in October.
Career highlights
In 2024, Mageean won the 1,500 metres title at the European Athletics Championships in Rome, described as her greatest sporting achievement. She had also won European 1,500m bronze in 2016 and silver in 2022. Representing Northern Ireland, she won silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. In 2023, she finished fourth in the World Championship final in Budapest and was named BBC Northern Ireland Sports Personality of the Year.
Mageean specialised in the 1500m and represented Ireland at the 2016 Rio Olympics and the Tokyo Games. An Achilles tendon injury kept her out of the 2024 Paris Olympics. She missed the start line after the injury occurred the week before the games.
Tributes
Northern Ireland's first minister, Michelle O'Neill, and deputy first minister, Emma Little-Pengelly, paid tribute to Mageean. O'Neill said Mageean would be remembered for her warmth, courage and tremendous strength of character. Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he was deeply saddened by her untimely passing.
