Lauren Rowles

Lauren Rowles OBE is a three-time Paralympic champion, accomplished speaker and one of Great Britain’s most successful rowers. Lauren’s story began at the age of 13, when she became disabled following a sudden illness and found herself navigating an entirely different future from the one she had imagined. Sport became a major part of rebuilding her confidence and identity, and after being inspired by the London 2012 Paralympic Games, she began competing in wheelchair racing as a teenager.

She quickly progressed onto the international stage before being identified by British Rowing in 2015. Just five months after taking her first stroke, Lauren won silver at the World Championships and qualified a boat for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. At just 18, she won Paralympic gold in Rio and went on to build one of the most successful careers in British Para rowing. Lauren successfully defended her title at Tokyo 2020 before making history again at Paris 2024, winning a third consecutive Paralympic gold medal and crowning her as the most successful Paralympic rower in the history of the sport.

After Paris, Lauren chose to step away from rowing and begin an entirely new chapter. She is now working towards LA 2028 in Para triathlon, taking on the challenge of learning and mastering a new sport at the highest level. This next chapter has added a new dimension to Lauren’s speaking. Having already reached the pinnacle of her sport, she now speaks openly about the courage required to start again, move outside your comfort zone, redefine success and apply the lessons of high performance to an entirely new challenge.

Away from competition, Lauren works across digital, social media and creative strategy and has developed a particular specialism in inclusive communications. Drawing on both her professional expertise and lived experience as a disabled and LGBTQ+ person, she works with organisations to explore how they can create more inclusive cultures, content and campaigns, with a particular focus on authentic representation across digital and social media.

An experienced and versatile speaker, Lauren can tailor her talks to each audience, covering themes including mental resilience, goal setting, high performance, teamwork, adversity, reinvention, disability and LGBTQ+ inclusion, inclusive leadership, representation and authentic storytelling.