Laura Sugar

Laura Sugar (born 7 February 1991) is a British Paralympic athlete who is a two time Paralympic champion in the Paracanoe KL3 event . Prior to competing in canoe Sugar competed in Para Athletics in the sprint events under the T44 classification. Before taking up athletics Sugar represented Wales at field hockey captaining the under-20s team and gaining 16 full international caps.

Personal career Sugar was born in Saffron Walden, England in 1991. She was born with talipes (club foot), which meant her foot was turned in. Sugar underwent surgery to correct the problem as a baby, but it left her with no movement in her ankle. She was educated at Newport Free Grammar before matriculating to the University of Leeds where she studied sports science.

Canoeing career

Sugar switched to paracanoeing from athletics at the end of 2018 thanks UK Sports talent transfer programme. At her first world championships in 2019 Sugar won the silver behind Shahnova Mirzaeva of Uzbekistan missing out on the gold by 0.03 of a second. Due to Covid the 2020 Canoe world championships was cancelled meaning that Sugars next major event would be the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic games. Sugar became Paralympic champion in Tokyo in 2021 just three years after joining the World Class Programme. Sugar went on to claim her maiden world title just two weeks later in Copenhagen, before being awarded an MBE in the 2022 New Year’s Honours. She has since gone on to underline her dominance in the KL3 event, powering to victory at the World Championships in Halifax and European Championship in Munich in 2022. The latter was her first European title after a bronze in 2019. In 2023, Sugar won her third consecutive world title in the KL3 in Duisburg, while also qualifying Britain’s boat quota spot for Paris 2024. Sugar continued on her success from 2023 in 2024 winning a fourth World Championship gold in Szeged. Sugar retained her Paralympic title winning gold at Paris 2024 in the Women’s Kayak Single 200m KL3 race. This was ParalympicsGB’s 49th and final gold medal of a stunning Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

Hockey career Sugar took up field hockey while attending Newport Free Grammar, starting at the age of 12. She played as a youth for Saffron Walden, Cambridgeshire and was selected for trials for the East of England squad. This brought her to the attention of Hockey Wales who successfully recruited her to the Welsh youth squad due to her father's Welsh roots. Now a T44 classification athlete, Sugar had to decide on whether to continue her hockey career or switch to track and field. She chose athletics and spent the next ten months committing all her time outside of her teaching to her new training regime. Sugar only competed in the 100 metres event, and her time of 14.86, way outside her personal best, was not enough to get her through the heats. In July Sugar was confirmed as a member of the Great Britain team to compete at the Rio Paralympics.

Sugar was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to canoeing.