Laura Sugar MBE brilliantly retained her own Paralympic title in Paris after she beat France’s Nelia Barbosa to gold in the women’s KL3.

She first became Paralympic champion in Tokyo in 2021 just three years after joining the World Class Programme.

With the golden glow of that performance still alive and well, 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, qualifying Britain’s boat quota spot for Paris 2024. She then went on to kick-start her 2024 season with her fourth World Championship gold in Szeged.

Her European bronze in 2019 came during her debut paracanoe season and it was her first international competition. She capped off that season by winning world silver.

Sugar switched to paracanoeing from athletics in 2018 thanks to British Canoeing's talent ID process. As an international track and field athlete, she won four European medals.

She is also a talented hockey player, which is where she was introduced to para-sport. She still coaches hockey in her spare time.