ROWLES Lauren

Classification
PR2 (worldrowing.com, 03 Jun 2021)

Type of Impairment
Impaired range of motion (itv.com, 08 Sep 2015)

Origin of Impairment
Acquired (itv.com, 08 Sep 2015)

Impairment Details
In 2012 she was diagnosed with transverse myelitis [inflammation of the spinal cord]. The condition caused her to lose the mobility in both legs. "I went to bed one night completely able-bodied and I woke up the next morning and was paralysed. I remember that morning so vividly because I woke up and had this kind of pins and needles feeling in my legs. I swung around the side of the bed and went to stand up and just completely collapsed on the floor." (villageonline.co.uk, 01 Jul 2013; bbc.co.uk, 24 Mar 2021)

General
DEALING WITH IMPAIRMENT
She was diagnosed with transverse myelitis at age 13, and says she struggled to deal with her impairment when she returned to high school. "I went back to school and people started looking at me differently and treating me differently. My life was completely different. I think people just felt sympathy for me and I hated that in a way. I hated that I was no longer perceived as this strong, athletic, young girl. I was just this disabled, poor, helpless girl." (YouTube channel, 25 Nov 2019)

RETURN TO SPORT
She competed in able-bodied sports prior to her impairment and was inspired to take up Para sports after attending the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. "I never grew up knowing anyone disabled or in a wheelchair. So when mum said to me, 'Do you want to go to the watch the Paralympics in London?' I was like, 'Okay sure', not really knowing what that entailed. It was one of the first times I'd been out in a wheelchair, so I was incredibly anxious, nervous and didn't know what to expect. It was the day it all changed for me. From there it was just all about sport, about getting back to sport and going back to my safe place." (YouTube channel, 25 Nov 2019)

RETIREMENT THOUGHTS
She underwent three surgeries following the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and says she considered retiring from Para rowing after being diagnosed with compartment syndrome in 2018. She decided to undergo the necessary surgery and continue in the sport with a view to competing at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. "I really struggled over whether to put myself through it [surgery], not just from a sporting perspective but also from a personal perspective. I'm a young woman who cares about how I look. I like to go out and dress up, do I want the scars this surgery will give me for the rest of my life? For what? Another injury could be around the corner. This was the make or break moment. The doctors had advised me that if I had any hopes of competing in Tokyo [2020] I had to have the surgery. They also told me it would likely be my last Paralympics. So at the age of 20 I was facing the fact that I had to have major surgery for a career than had a shelf life of just a few years. Despite all that, I knew the answer in my heart. How could I walk away from another shot at Paralympic gold? I went ahead with the operation." (laurenrowles.com, 17 Feb 2020; parasports.world, 09 Sep 2019)

COMING OUT
In 2020 she came out as homosexual. "I think it's been something I've battled with since I was a kid. I was that kid at school that was called a lesbian because I was into sport, wore my hair in a low ponytail, I used to dress like a boy all the time. At the time it was like, 'Well you're a lesbian then'. It was that negative connotation because I was a tomboy and I had these tendencies to like things that boys liked. The girls at school used to pick on me and I was bullied because of that. I just grew up never really thinking that being gay was acceptable. As I got older I had boyfriends. I thought this is what love was like and [would] go through those teenage romances. But I actually realised I was never really happy. I was pretending to be somebody that I really wasn't. I actually was very different to other girls and as I got a bit older I realised that I should take that on and actually be who I want to be. I was never going to be truly happy if I kept living this lie. And it hurt me the most when it came around to my family. If I wasn't truly being myself, they didn't even know me and I found that really heartbreaking. Eventually it was a process of me growing the courage inside myself to tell my family and friends I was gay." (bbc.co.uk, 24 Mar 2021)