Laurence Whiteley (born 29 August 1991) is a British
parasport rower. He won gold with
Lauren Rowles
Lauren Rachel Catherine Rowles, (born 24 April 1998) is a British parasport rower and former wheelchair athlete. She won gold with Laurence Whiteley in the trunk-arms mixed double sculls (TAMix2x) at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.The pair repe ...
in the trunk-arms mixed double sculls (TAMix2x) at the
2016 Summer Paralympics
The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for disabled sports, athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, fro ...
.
Background
Whiteley, who is from
Northallerton
Northallerton ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of Mowbray and at the northern end of the Vale of York. It had a population of 16,832 in the 2011 census, an increa ...
, North Yorkshire, attended
Hurworth House School and
Polam Hall School.
He competed in
triathlon
A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the time transitioning between the ...
s as a youth and was the
British Triathlon
The British Triathlon Federation (formerly the British Triathlon Association) is the national governing body for triathlon, duathlon and associated multisport in Great Britain. It administers triathlon in England, Scotland, Wales, the Channel ...
regional champion for the 13–14 age group.
[ In 2006 at the age of 14 he was diagnosed with ]osteosarcoma
An osteosarcoma (OS) or osteogenic sarcoma (OGS) (or simply bone cancer) is a cancerous tumor in a bone. Specifically, it is an aggressive malignant neoplasm that arises from primitive transformed cells of mesenchymal origin (and thus a sarcoma ...
(a form of bone cancer) below his right knee, and was given only a 30% chance of survival by doctors. He had surgery to remove the tumour, during which his knee joint and part of his fibula
The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity i ...
were removed, and further surgery to replace the joint and insert titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resista ...
rods into his leg.[ He also had ]chemotherapy
Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs ( chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemothe ...
over an 11-month period. He learned to walk again after a year of physiotherapy.[
]
Career
After his recovery Whiteley initially competed as a swimmer, and was national junior champion at 50 m freestyle in the S10 classification.[ He took up rowing in 2011 at the ]Tees Rowing Club
Tees Rowing Club is a rowing club based on the River Tees in Northeast England. The club was founded in 1864.
The Roll of Honour at the club includes 2012 Olympic Gold medal winner Kat Copeland and 2016 Paralympic Gold medal winner Laurence W ...
, initially competing in the non-Paralympic trunk-arms men's single scull category. Since 2014 he has trained with the national squad in Caversham, Berkshire.
After searching for over two years for a suitable partner to compete with in Paralympic double sculls, Whiteley teamed up with Lauren Rowles
Lauren Rachel Catherine Rowles, (born 24 April 1998) is a British parasport rower and former wheelchair athlete. She won gold with Laurence Whiteley in the trunk-arms mixed double sculls (TAMix2x) at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.The pair repe ...
, a former wheelchair racer
Wheelchair racing is the racing of wheelchairs in track and road races. Wheelchair racing is open to athletes with any qualifying type of disability, amputees, spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy and partially sighted (when combined with another ...
who had recently switched to rowing, in early 2015. Their first major championship together was the 2015 World Rowing Championships
The 2015 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 30 August to 6 September 2015 at Lac d'Aiguebelette, Aiguebelette in France.
Description
The annual week-long rowing regatta was organized by FISA (the ...
, where they won the silver medal in the TAMix2x trunk-arms mixed double sculls. At the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, they set a world record in the heats and went on to win gold in the final.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Whiteley, Laurence
1991 births
Living people
Paralympic gold medalists for Great Britain
Rowers at the 2016 Summer Paralympics
Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics
Rowers at the 2020 Summer Paralympics
Medalists at the 2020 Summer Paralympics
World Rowing Championships medalists for Great Britain
People from Northallerton
Sportspeople from Scarborough, North Yorkshire
Members of the Order of the British Empire
Paralympic medalists in rowing
Paralympic rowers of Great Britain