High up in the stands at the striking Stade d'eau vive Vaires-sur-Marne venue that is hosting canoeing events at Paris 2024, one of the parents of a pair of Team Ireland athletes was feeling both a sense of pride, excitement and nerves.
Both of his twin daughters have been representing Ireland in the K1 (kayak) and C1 (canoe) categories over the past week at these Olympics and on Saturday afternoon, one of them was about to embark on a new Olympic event, the women's slalom kayak cross.
"As a parent watching on, it's extremely nerve-wracking," he tells RTÉ Sport.
"You're watching your kids on the water and you've no control over what they do and what's happening and I've always felt as an athlete I was in control, I wasn't so nervous but as a parent I do a lot of nail-biting."
Mike Corcoran represented Ireland as a slalom canoeist at the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games and Paris 2024 was his first as a spectator.
The reason for travelling all the way from the United States where he's been based for 36 years? There's a straightforward answer.
The Dublin native's daughters Madison and Michaela have been among the 133-strong Team Ireland contingent that started the Games.
Watch the full interview with Mike Corcoran here:
Michaela, who was a late addition to the travelling party in the women's C1, had already finished up her maiden Olympics, but Madison still had the kayak cross to tackle after completing her individual K1 event.
"I'm very proud obviously," Corcoran told RTÉ Sport as he and his wife Susie waited for the start of the event.
"Madison got selected in September and it took Michaela many more months for her spot to come up and it did, and both of them are here.
"They performed pretty well, considering it was their first Olympics and they're only 21 years old."
Both Texan-born twins first got acquainted with the sport at the tender age of four where they grew up by the Potomac River in the US state of Maryland, following in their father's wake.
"It was a natural playground to bring them down to the river. When they were four, they liked to come out with me on the boat and play around and swim," he said.
Corcoran's own interest in canoeing was sparked back home in Glasnevin when he was 16.
"It started when I wanted to buy a model airplane and I worked in a pub and I didn't have enough money to buy a model airplane so I bought a boat," he said.
"I joined a whitewater kayak club and then the rest is history."
That was way back in the '80s but by the end of the decade, he decided to make his way to the United States after receiving a Donnelly Visa for what was supposed to be a stay of just nine months to develop in his chosen sport by training with members of the US canoe team while also studying for a third-level degree there.
He never left but home - and his accent - never left him either and he took pride in representing Ireland at the two Olympics that took place in the 1990s in Barcelona and Atlanta.
"The opening ceremony (in 1992) was probably the most exciting thing I've ever been to when they lit the flame with an archer, that was fantastic," he recalled.
"But really in the slalom you're competing with the guys you compete with at World Cups. So I really had a blast.
"It was really enjoyable and there were no nerves for me at that race and I had a controversial penalty that put me from third to 12th, so it kind of energised me to keep going."
After that 12th place in Barcelona, four years later Corcoran would finish 10th at the Atlanta Games. But even aside from following his daughters forge their own path in the sport, he has maintained strong ties with Canoeing Ireland, sponsoring Liam Jegou who has also been competing at Paris after making his Olympic debut in Tokyo.
"I was asked to support him and then I started sponsoring him in 2018 and I just kind of continued from there," he said.
"I know what it's like to kind of scrape by. We did it for my whole career and I'm in a position now where I have a business and it's very successful so I can also give back and I can support Canoeing Ireland as well and I think that's the way to produce athletes.
"Ideally, Ireland would have an artificial course like this (Vaires-sur-Marne course) here in the Sport Ireland campus that would produce Olympic athletes for sure."
The business in question that has been quite successful also ties into his drive for generosity. In 2002, he co-founded Medical Centre Orthotics and Prosthetics (MCOP) which is based just outside Washington DC and since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the clinic has been helping care for Ukrainian soldiers injured in the ongoing war, free of charge.
As a result, Corcoran received an award from Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a vist to the US last year.
"Based on our experience of working with blast injuries and combat injuries with the United States military, when Russia invaded Ukraine I felt very strongly that this was wrong and we made overtures to the Ukrainians that we would treat their soldiers for free if they could get them over to the United States," he said.
"And we've been treating over 70 soldiers now in Washington and in Malta and we intend on opening up a facility in Kyiv to train their prosthetists and also treat their soliders.
"It's very rewarding to help, but the juxtaposition of the Olympics and what's going on in Ukraine is so striking. It's very exciting to be here but people need to understand that Russians and (Vladimir) Putin's forces are killing Ukrainian civilians and Ukrainian that are defending their homeland.
"And it should not be forgotten even in this great time (in Paris), the sacrifices that people are making for freedom.
"There are Ukrainian athletes here on the water as well. They're very brave and in fact one of the Ukrainian Olympians was supposed to be here but he was killed earlier this year in a firefight in Ukraine.
"So I'm glad no Russians are here and I think the IOC needs to take a stronger standpoint on this.
"They try and shy away saying they don't want to mix politics and sport but this is not politics, this is an invasion. World War II wasn't politics but if this carries on that'll end up being a World War III and I fear that."
Russian and Belarusian athletes at Paris 2024 have been competing under the banner of Individual Neutral Athletes rather than as part of their own National Olympic Committees as a result of the ongoing conflict but Corcoran believes the International Olympic Committee should have gone further.
"I think it's a pass. I think they've given Russia a pass," he said of that decision.
"It's not appropriate enough. They should have just called them out and banned them and say, 'No, we're not putting up with this.'"
As for the future concerning his own family, his daughters will both have an eye on competing at Los Angeles 2028 and they are keen to strengthen their ties to Ireland beyond their annual visits home.
"We try to get back every year. I want them to feel like it's home for them and it's home for me still even though I spend most of my time in the US," he said.
"We're also looking at buying a house in Dublin and Michaela when she finishes her studies wants to move to Ireland, so it's drawn us back."
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