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Lauren Rachel Catherine Rowles, MBE[2] (born 24 April 1998) is a British parasport rower and former wheelchair athlete. She won gold with Laurence Whiteley in the trunk-arms mixed double sculls (TAMix2x) at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.The pair repeated their achievement in Tokyo at the 2021 Summer Paralympics.
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| Born | 24 April 1998 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 172 cm (5 ft 8 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 56 kg (123 lb)[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics (2012–14) Rowing (2015–present) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Disability class | T54 (athletics) PR2 (rowing) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Rowles, who is from Cofton Hackett, Bromsgrove District, attended North Bromsgrove High School.[3] At the age of 13 she suddenly developed transverse myelitis (a condition in which the spinal cord is inflamed), which left her with no feeling below her chest.[4] She decided to take up Paralympic sport while watching coverage of the 2012 Summer Paralympics during a stay in Stoke Mandeville Spinal Injuries Unit.[5]
Rowles completed her A-levels at King Edward VI College, Stourbridge,[6] and is currently studying law at Oxford Brookes University.[5] She is openly gay.[7] Rowles is engaged to Jude, a wheelchair basketball player.[8]
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Rowles competed as a wheelchair racer before switching to rowing. She took up the sport in November 2012 and competed in T54 events.[3] In 2014, she was the England under-16s champion at 100 m, 200 m and 1,500 m. She represented England at the 2014 Commonwealth Games,[9] where she was the youngest track and field athlete in the England team at the age of 16.[3] She reached the final of the T54 1500 m, finishing ninth.[10]
Rowles took up rowing in early 2015.[11] She quickly teamed up with Laurence Whiteley, who had been searching for a suitable partner to compete with for over two years.[12] They competed at the 2015 World Rowing Championships, winning the silver medal in the trunk-arms mixed double sculls.[11] She and Whiteley competed at their first Paralympics in 2016, where they set a world record in the heats,[13] and won gold in the final.[14]
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