Emma Wiggs

Career Wiggs took up sitting volleyball in 2010 after attending a UK Sport talent identification day, where she was offered the opportunity to train in five different sports but chose sitting volleyball because she wanted to compete in a team sport. and was a member of the team that competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, finishing eighth.

Wiggs switched to paracanoeing after the 2012 Paralympics. She became a full-time athlete, training at the Holme Pierrepont National Watersports Centre in Nottingham, and won European and World Championship titles in the K1 200m TA class in 2013. She won further world titles in the K1 200m KL2 class in 2015 and 2016, and also won the silver medal at the 2015 European Championships.

Wiggs won gold in the KL2 class at the 2016 Summer Paralympics, the first Paralympics to feature canoeing events, with a time of 53.288 seconds.

At the 2020 Paralympics she became the most successful Female Paracanoest, winning a further Gold in the VL2 and Silver in the KL2. She then continued her success with Gold and Silver at the Paracanoe Worlds in the VL2 and KL2.

At the 2024 Summer Paralympics, she won a gold in women's paracanoeing va'a VL2 and a silver in women's paracanoeing kayak KL2.

Career outside Sport Wiggs is a motivational speaker, ambassador and mentor. She has been chosen as one of 35 elite female athletes for the ‘Unlocked’ initiative, set up by Women’s Sports Trust, with the aim of challenging the lack of diversity in sport, particularly at a senior level; she is a performance champion at Vitality, and she is also working in partnership with Caravan and Motorhome Club supporting disabled access.

Wiggs was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Education by the University of Chichester in 2017.

Wiggs is openly lesbian.