Lauren Rowles OBE

Lauren Rowles OBE is a para athlete. She is a three-time Paralympic champion, one of the Great Britain’s most successful paralympic rowers of all time, and a popular keynote speaker.

Lauren’s journey began in 2012 when, at the age of 13, she suddenly became paralysed from the waist down. She spent months in hospital and rehabilitation adapting to life as a wheelchair user and rebuilding a future that looked very different from the one she had imagined.

Inspired by the London 2012 Paralympic Games, she discovered wheelchair racing and quickly progressed into elite sport, representing GB internationally before being identified by British Rowing in 2015.

Drawing on her lived experience as a disabled and LGBTQ+ individual alongside more than a decade in elite sport, Lauren delivers honest, engaging, and adaptable talks that combine personal storytelling with practical lessons audiences can take back into their own lives and organisations.

Booking is easy with Great British Talent. To find out availability and fees for Lauren Rowles or any other talent for your corporate event or project, contact our Great British Talent agents via [email protected], or call us on +44 1753 439289.

Alternatively, fill out our talent enquiry form here – we’ll aim to respond within the hour. Our knowledgeable team of experts can handle all aspects of your booking to ensure it runs flawlessly.

Type Of Speaker

Disability Diversity Employment & Recruitment Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Female Speakers Health & Wellbeing Hidden Disabilities High Performance Leadership & Teamwork LGBTQ+ (Pride) Mental Health Motivational Paralympics Personal Development Resilience Sales & Marketing Speaker Sport

More About Lauren Rowles OBE

Just five month after taking her first stroke, Lauren Rowles won silver at the World Championships before going on to win Paralympic gold at Rio 2016 when she was just 18 years old. She successfully defended her title at Tokyo 2020 and then had an extraordinary Paris 2024, winning her third consecutive Paralympic gold medal.

As well as her three Paralympic gold medals, she holds two golds and one silver at the World Championships, and two golds from the European Championships.

After Paris, Lauren stepped away from rowing and is now embarking on an entirely new sporting chapter as she works towards LA 2028 in Para triathlon.

Her latest challenge gives Lauren a unique perspective on what happens after achieving the goal you have spent your life chasing: finding the courage to start again, becoming a beginner, redefining success, and transferring a high-performance mindset into an entirely new environment.

Lauren also has experience in presenting, broadcasting, and live sports punditry. She was a pundit for The Boat Race 2026 live on Channel 4 alongside Clare Balding and Ade Adepitan.

Away from the world of professional sport and competition, Lauren also works professionally across digital, social media, and creative strategy, with a particular specialism in helping organisations become more inclusive in the way they communicate, create content, and represent different communities.

She was appointed and MBE in the 2017 New Years Honours and OBE in the 2025 New Years Honours for services to rowing.

Lauren Rowles OBE hire para athlete speaker book at agent Great British Speakers

Lauren Rowles | Speaker

Now a popular speaker, Lauren is happy to offer a range of formats, including keynotes, Q&As, fireside chats, panel discussions, workshops, event hosting, awards ceremonies, internal company events, leadership and team sessions, and virtual events.

Lauren Rowles | Speaking Topics

– Mental Resilience
– Goal Setting
– High Performance
– Overcoming Adversity
– Reinvention and Starting Again
– Managing Change
– Mindset
– Teamwork
– Building High-Performing Teams
– Leadership
– Mental Health and Wellbeing
– Disability Inclusion
– LGBTQ+ Inclusion
– Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion
– Inclusive Leadership and Workplace Culture
– Authentic Representation
– Inclusive Marketing, Digital, and Social Media
– Storytelling and Communication
– Finding Purpose Beyond Success
– The Road to LA 2028

Lauren Rowles OBE hire para athlete speaker book at agent Great British Speakers

Call +44 1753 439 289 or email Great British Speakers now to book Lauren Rowles for your next live event or corporate video.

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Testimonials

Lauren’s session was incredibly inspiring, and it created a lot of interaction and inspirational conversation, during and after her session. Lauren talked candidly about her experiences, being authentic throughout, allowing people to connect with her and resonate with some of the challenges faced. Lauren provided some fantastic advice on allyship, which attendees greatly valued.
Sarah, Assoc. CIPD EEDI & Development Coordinator, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

As an NHS Trust we feel it is really important to celebrate the hard work and dedication of our staff and having Lauren there to present the awards to our staff made the evening that extra bit special. She made time to speak to everybody and we know how inspiring our staff found her story.
Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust

Lauren was great and received and standing ovation. Her speech was truly inspirational and her incredible story worked really well within our programme. She touched everyone in the room and we received so much praise on the event due to her.
Sarah, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham

We booked Lauren to be the keynote speaker at a high profile Council event to celebrate our top achieving GCSE students. Lauren not only spoke passionately about her experiences of the ability to overcome the most profound challenges to achieve your dreams, but pitched her speech perfectly to appeal to and inspire both young people and parents. She serves as incredible role model for young people in particular, being both relatable and yet extraordinary in her achievements at the same time.
Erik, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham

Yes she was fab and really hit the mark both in terms of connecting with the audience and the topic we were discussing. So much so it caused a bit of change to the agenda for the second day!
Aimee, Programme Manager, BAE Systems

The event with Lauren with fabulous and she did an amazing job – we could not have asked for anything more to help support the launch of our employee disability network. She came across amazingly and there wasn’t a dry eye in TW by the end of her talk!
Stephen, Senior HR Business Partner, Taylor Wimpey

Lauren was brilliant, we had such good feedback from all the attendees who said she was engaging and impactful, one attendee said they wished we had another hour with her!
Ayele, Junior Operations Analyst, Corona Energy

I’m getting inundated with messages from colleagues to say what an inspirational and amazing speaker she is and she truly was incredible. A huge thank you to Lauren, honestly we are so grateful that she shared her story with us and all her tips for building a more diverse and inclusive workplace!
Victoria, ING UK

Lauren absolutely met our brief and it was incredible to hear her story – we loved that she was so relatable and provided really valuable advice and tools for people to take away and use to help build their resilience, and these were completely transferrable from Lauren’s experience as an athlete, to anyone regardless of their career. She is an inspiration to all and I think her words have made a real impact on those who attended.
HR & CSR Administrator, DAS UK Group

Lauren was fantastic. She had some of our lot pretty much in tears. Really good speaker and a great story to tell.
Peter, ROCC