Lauren Rowles

Who are you and what is your background in sport?

I'm Lauren RAs. I'm two time Paralympic rowing champion, soon to be mom and L-G-B-T-Q. Activist for me. I've been doing sports since I can pretty much remember. I remember being able to run before I could walk, to be honest with you. And sport has always been a part of my life. I was the kid that took P class, like it was the Olympic Games and was pretty much like the only thing I ever wanted to do in life was becoming an Olympian. I've done a combination of sports over the years. Pretty much any sport you can think of I've done. And I ended up now going backwards quickly for a living now, rowing in a boat and becoming on to become that Paralympian and went two paralympic gold medals and become world and European champion across my career.

What's the biggest challenge you've experienced in sport?

The biggest challenge I think I've experienced in sport has been just being able to be authentically myself. I think it's so hard nowadays to feel as though you can have the confidence to go out there and be a hundred percent you, especially in a world of sport. When I was growing up as a young teenage athlete and as a young athlete in particular, you feel as though you have to conform to what everybody else wants you to be. There's this mould and there's this prototype of what athletes should be, and to be a successful athlete, you have to behave like this, speak like this, and be the best at what you do. And for me, I became such a diluted version of myself that when I got to the point of being so successful, I actually didn't feel like Lauren and off the water. I felt like the least version of myself possible. And in the later part of my career now and coming into the best years, I would say of my career, the reason why I'm doing so well on the water is because I've actually found who Lauren is off the water. And I think that that for me is the hardest challenge, is turning up on that start line and knowing that you're putting a hundred percent you out there in how you look, what you wear, how you talk. It's got to be absolutely authentically you. And for me, I know that's what the key to success has been for me. It's just making sure that in everything I do, it's just always me.

What is your favourite sporting memory?

Favourite sporting memory for me is I think the first time I ever got in a boat for the first time. I know it sounds really cliche, but that moment when I got in a boat and I got on the water, there was a moment for me at that point in my life where I'd not long become disabled. I was a pretty angry teenager, pretty angry at what the world had done to me in becoming disabled. So for me, that moment where you get on the water, you push off from the side, and you just see your wheelchair fade into the distance, is such a powerful moment for me in that, and I can take myself right back to that moment of pushing off that side and feeling like I was free from the disability. And that for me was just such an incredible moment of realising the power of sport and what it could do. Being out on the water, trying to row and trying to put my blade in that water seemed like the simplest thing to anybody else. But for me was the thing that made me feel like I was combating disability. And I think I'll always remember that moment as the most magical moment of probably my career, because it was the moment that kickstarted a whole journey that has taken my life on a completely different course to what I ever thought was possible.

Have you ever struggled with your gender identify?

What are the lows of competing at the Paralympics?