By Tom Harle at Vaires-sur-Marne 

Lauren Rowles hopes her historic third Paralympic gold can inspire fellow members of the LGTBQ+ community to chase their own dreams.

Rowles combined with Gregg Stevenson to win double sculls gold in Paris and become the first rower ever to win three Paralympic titles.

With partner and wheelchair basketballer Jude Hamer, Rowles welcomed son Noah into the world in March and her pride at representing her communities burns brighter than ever.

“When I was 10 years old, I wrote in my diary that I wanted to become a runner at the Olympics and two years later, I lost the use of my legs,” said Rowles, who is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – which has been vital on their pathway to the Paris 2024 Games.

“I wanted to hide from the world, but I watched London 2012 and felt that was what life is about. 

“I went out to Rio, and it just ignited me, I sat there and saw greatness amongst me, and I thought I wanted to be there one day.

“Ever since then, I’ve been thinking about making history and this is for all of the young LGTBQ people out there. It’s okay if you’re a little bit outcased, you’re a little bit different, because you can go on and achieve greatness.

“As LGTBQ+ people, there have been attacks on us recently and it’s hard. It’s hard for our friends and families who support us every day and fight our battles, to fight for who we are and our right to love. 

“When I’m on that start line, I want to do it for people who look like me, love like me and feel like me and I hope I’ve done that.”

In their previous 11 international races together, Rowles and Stevenson had never failed to cross the line first and set four new world best times in the process.

(Image: ParalympicsGB/imagecomms)

In the final they were put under immense pressure by the Chinese duo Liu Shuang and Jiang Jijian, who started powerfully to open up a clear water lead at the halfway mark.

Liu and Jiang led deep into the final 500 metres, but the Brits summoned a sprint finish, passing their rivals in the last ten strokes to prevail by a couple of seconds.

“That’s not usually the way we do it,” said Stevenson. “We try to take care of it at 1000 metres, that’s usually our strength so it was a different style.

“We’ve said in the last few months, we’ve got to race until the last stroke because people will bring something you don’t expect and that’s what we saw.

“It panned out exactly as Lauren called it. I was really impressed with China, what a row, they took us right until the end.”

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