The Game Changers
In this award-winning podcast Sue Anstiss talks to trailblazers in women sport. These are the individuals who are knocking down barriers and challenging the status quo for women and girls everywhere. Along with openly sharing their historic careers, what drives them and how they’ve dealt with tough challenges, each episode explores key issues for equality in sport and beyond.
We’re incredibly grateful to Sport England who support The Game Changers through a National Lottery award.
You can find out about all the guests at https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers Fearless Women in Sport
The Game Changers
Lauren Steadman: How para athletes change society's perceptions
This episode was previously released on October 29, 2019.
Paratriathlon World Champion and Paralympic Silver medallist, Lauren also enthralled us all as a semi-finalist on last year’s Strictly Come Dancing.
Ever wondered what it really takes to become a world champion? We're sitting down with Lauren Steadman, para-triathlon champ and Olympic silver medalist, to hear her story. From keen young swimmer to unbeatable triathlete, Lauren's journey is pretty incredible.
She'll take us back to where it all started - her first memories of sports, the challenges of growing up with one hand, and how her family backed her all the way. It's not just about being great at sports though - it's about bouncing back when things get tough, learning to be comfortable in your own skin, and working your socks off to be the best you can be.
But there's more to Lauren than just sport. She'll also chat about balancing her studies with training, and how Portsmouth Uni has been really supportive.
And just when you thought you knew her, Lauren surprises everyone by appearing on Strictly Come Dancing! She'll talk about managing her intense sports career alongside learning to dance, and how she's been inspiring people along the way.
Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.
Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers
Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media
A Fearless Women production
Hello and welcome to he Game Changers podcast, where you'll hear from extraordinary, trailblazing women in sport. I'm Sue Anstis, a founding trustee of the Women's Sport Trust charity and the founder and CEO of Promote PR, one of Britain's leading sports PR agencies. Promote PR one of Britain's leading sports PR agencies. In this episode, my very special guest is Lauren Stedman, para-triathlon world champion and Olympic silver medalist. Lauren also enthralled us all last year as a finalist in BBC's Strictly Come Dancing. I started the interview by asking Lauren about her airiest memories of sport growing up.
Lauren Steadman:I've been active since I think I could walk. You know, every kid grows up and obviously kids are kids. They always pick on the mean one or someone that's different. And having one hand, kids used to be like I don't know get chosen last for the sports teams. And you know I always felt a bit left out. So I made sure that, you know, with sport I played on the football team at school, the hockey, the netball, did as much sport as I could just to show all the other kids I'm missing an arm but I can do just as good as you can and I think it was for myself as much as the other kids.
Lauren Steadman:And swimming was something my grandma taught me and I was at primary school and the teacher said I need someone to do the local district swimming competition and no one put their hand up and I felt really sorry for our teacher. So I said I'll do it, I can swim. And I went there and at the competition the ex-head of British Disability Swimming just happened to be there and she had a local academy and obviously she saw me and then she came to my parents and said I think you know Lauren actually has a skill here. She could go really far. Have you heard of disability swimming? And at that point me and my parents hadn't, so I went and did like all the Kellogg's levels that you do with her.
Lauren Steadman:And then I went to my first disability competition. I was about 11 years old. I was really scared. My dad came all the way up to the beginning of the race with me and then I sort of got scouted and within six months I was on the British Disability Development Programme and was doing my first international when I was 12 in Denmark and I got my first gold medal. And once you have a taste for what it's like up in elite sport and international, it went from there. But yeah, sport has been in everything I've done in my whole life.
Sue Anstiss:And so it's fantastic to hear. At school as well, you didn't have people putting you off or telling you you couldn't do things. It was yourself, you think, that pushed yourself forward to try everything. Yeah.
Lauren Steadman:I think myself and I have to give my parents probably the biggest amount of credit I could ever give them, because mum said that when I was growing up it was very easy to want to help me. She said even when you've got a child with two hands, you just want to do something for the child if they're struggling. But she said I would leave you until you really couldn't do it and you'd exhausted all avenues in which to achieve what you're trying to do. One of them she always tells me about shoelaces. You would try and try and try, so we would just put you in the car with your shoes in the end and you'd be in the back of the car trying to do it. But that installed I determination.
Lauren Steadman:But everyone else says I'm really stubborn. But I think I have to prove it to myself Even today, like if there's something I can't do and someone says, do you need a hand, I'm like, no, I'm going to do it myself and I think that's what made me go through life being. I'm going to prove to myself, prove to others and I, when I was younger, probably would have taken another hand if someone said, oh, I can give you a hand because you don't like to be different Kids. It can be quite ruthless when you're going through primary school and stuff. But now if you said, lauren, here's a hand, I'd be like I really don't want it. I can do everything you can do without it and it makes me who I am so self-acceptance, I think.
Sue Anstiss:Absolutely. Were your family sporty. Do you have a sporty family?
Lauren Steadman:I sporty, whether you do you have a sporty family. I wouldn't have said sporty to the standard that I am, but every weekend was let's go out, let's walk the dogs, let's play football out the front. Um, we weren't allowed playstations and we weren't allowed to watch Simptons, so it was always. You know, you've done, you've done your homework, so now you can go outside and play before dinner, and I loved it rollerblades, making dens. I was always very active outside, so I'd say in that sense we were sporty. But other than that, my mum and dad just wanted me to make my own choices in paths I took and I can say that swimming and triathlon, my whole olympic, paralympic career has all been from me, not from them.
Sue Anstiss:I've never been pushed, it's always been in my own choice and you've obviously made some big sacrifices to compete at that level.
Lauren Steadman:And so young yeah there's been a lot of sacrifice and at first, but again, when you are younger, you think in your head, oh, should I be doing this? Is this what I want? But I can say that having stood, you know, as a world champion, with the national anthem, playing, with the gold medal, you sort of, in that moment, go. You know I know what. I sacrificed everything for all of the long hours, all of the tears, the sweat. It was worth it for this one point. And I think you have to realise that I've got years ahead of me when I'll be like probably a parent and an older lady who has her regular glasses of red wine and goes out Like that's something that I can do for the rest of my life, but my body will not be what it is now.
Lauren Steadman:So probably the biggest sacrifice was I went away to boarding school at 14 and I feel as though I made that choice because obviously I wanted to, you know, have a successful career, manage my academics alongside sport. Was that why you? Why you did that? Yeah, my dad has his own company and I've got a younger sister. So, you know, driving 45 minutes to the local pool morning and night was tiring the whole family out, whereas when I moved to it's now Mount Kelly college down in Devon, you know, it was metres my bed from the swimming pool, so I would get up, I'd go swimming, then I'd go straight to school and it made my whole career a lot easier because I could manage all of it.
Lauren Steadman:But I missed out on family time. I missed growing up with my sister, you know friends, going out. The weekend there was a Woolworths in Tabberstock, but that was about it. I didn't. You know there was no going out to the late night cinemas or there wasn't even. You don't have a nightclub. I think there's a Wetherspoons now but when I was there there was, you know, just cups of tea. So in that sense, but when I look back it's fondest memories I have.
Sue Anstiss:And what advice would you give to young athletes now in that situation that you were, because we hear a lot about girls at 13, 14, you know, dropping away from sport.
Lauren Steadman:Yeah, I think my advice for any young girls is to be don't be too hard on yourself for a start. Like, if there's something you want to do, you do it because you love to do it and you want to do it Same, whether that's choosing a sport or choosing what you're going to study at school. There are certain things you think, oh, I should study this. But if you don't love what you do, it becomes a chore. Whereas if a chore, um, whereas if you love what you do, you just do it day in, day out and you have a passion for it. Um, and I'd say it is a tough world out there, but you've got to learn to be tough. Like, there have been so many times that I've been knocked down and I thought this is really, really tough, but then, when you achieve something, the satisfaction is overwhelming and it drives me to then want to achieve the next step. So, for any young girl out there, attack it with everything you have.
Sue Anstiss:Fantastic, fantastic advice, and how old were you when you went to your first paralympics?
Lauren Steadman:I was 15 all those years ago. I feel really old now. Someone said to me the other day, this is your fourth games coming up and I was like, yeah, it makes me sound really old, but at 15 I managed to. Well, I qualified when I think I was 14 and then by the time I was 15. But it was overwhelming and within the six months of going to the boarding school I had to drop around seven seconds in order to qualify. So it was a tall, tall tall order, but I managed to do it and I still remember to this day like I can sit here with numerous world titles and everything. But that was possibly my favorite moment in my sporting career was touching the wall and hearing the commentator say Lauren Steadman, lane four, has qualified like I can. It gives me shivers now because it's just like the first time you ever achieve something bit naive.
Lauren Steadman:Once I got to Beijing, um, I came away ninth. So I was a bit disappointed and we had such a successful team. You see everyone get the gold medals and you think you know I've not delivered for my country, um, but I decided that actually it's not a failure. I learned from it. It gave me experience to go forward for four years ready for London. Um, and yeah, I didn't, didn't look back, um, and I learned a lot. When you're so young, it's overwhelming. The whole going to a big Paralympic Games even the village itself is is amazing. So, yeah, I took forward something to learn from it and I think that's helped sculpt the rest of my career.
Sue Anstiss:I was going to come on to ask at what point you then transitioned across to triathlon. What was your decision there?
Lauren Steadman:So I had four years in between Beijing and London and I really wanted to go and correct everything that I hadn't managed to achieve in Beijing. I'd qualified for Beijing 106, one minute six seconds for 103 for four years. Everything I did I was four years stronger, smarter, wiser, slept well, all the physio, all the like, everything you could do I did, and it was still 106 four years later. Every single race was one and I, you know, I was training really fast. Why couldn't I get under 106? So I didn't actually qualify for London.
Lauren Steadman:But British swimming had seen the training times and they were like you know, we might need it for the relay, here's a wild card. So I got to go and relive all the events that I did in Beijing and I said to a teammate that actually we just raced at the weekend, claire. I said, claire, I do not mind what this race is, as long as it's a 105.99. And it was 105.98. And I was like, oh my gosh. But for me, being an athlete, you go from going to the Paralympics getting a gold medal to qualifying for events to getting a PB. But when you lower your standards, all that suddenly mattered to me was to get a PB. That had become my gold medal, so I'd achieved what I believed I really could achieve in swimming physically yes I'd exhausted every avenue possible.
Lauren Steadman:So my uncle, keen age group triathlete, said do you know what swimming's a part of a triathlon? You're great at swimming, why not try triathlon? You know you're a good swimmer, you might be a better triathlete. So straight after london got plane to New Zealand five weeks later representing British triathlon. Um come fifth in the world there due to food poisoning at Wellington.
Sue Anstiss:Auckland yeah, it was up there.
Lauren Steadman:So I was young, excited, learned to ride a bike, had a brakes, adapted, never run in my life, or you know when you're at school, but not competitively and then decided you know what I love, the three disciplines. I love what triathlon gives you. I'm going to go for it and then never look back that's amazing.
Sue Anstiss:Did you miss that difference in training and like it's? It's very very hard.
Lauren Steadman:Swimming is very regimented and focused. So you get up in the morning five to seven, you have all day. Then you go back in in the evening, like it's. It's very disciplined triathlon, it's more relaxed. It's sometimes in my Triathlon. It's more relaxed.
Lauren Steadman:In my head I thought it was more complicated because obviously you can swim open water, you can swim in the pool, you can bike indoors, you can bike outdoors, you can run indoors, you can run outdoors. So it was all sort of a bit hectic for me in my head. And with triathlon being a full-time athlete now, I'm flexible on my timetable. I'm not around school hours or swimming coaches and stuff. So the one thing I love now is that it's flexible. I can choose what I do, when I do it and as long as I've spoken to the coach, of course I don't want to upset him. But that was the hardest bit for me was going from a sport that was so regimented to one that's relaxed and combining three sports, because you'd be like, well, I've done a cycling this week, or should I've done more running, or. But you have to trust the process and that after a whole year's worth of training it will all come together and you alluded to your kind of quite rapid success.
Lauren Steadman:But you had the most amazing first year in triathlon yes, I did, it was so I did the race and I came fifth thought you know, I've got something here going around into next year. We went into Japan to race and it was the four times world champion. Fey she was also british went to japan. My swim background got a fantastic lead, got a minute's lead, um, got into transition and you guys were put on a helmet and you just you just clip your helmet up. Well, I couldn't do it and at this point I've solved that problem now I have a magnetic clip but I lost a minute in transition to her.
Lauren Steadman:So we went out on the bike together and did the whole race together and she just picked me at the end on the blue carpet. But in my head I did some maths if I hadn't have fumbled for a minute and she caught me by 10 seconds on the run, I could possibly have won that race. And that was all I needed in my head to give me the confidence and belief in myself, in my body and my muscles. And three weeks after that I beat her by three and a half minutes and was undefeated for nearly two years. So obviously within the swimming and that I'd lost confidence in my abilities and something was blocking me, but I managed to release that in triathlon and learn to believe in myself and trust the process.
Sue Anstiss:And you're clearly a magnificent swimmer, and I know it's not always enough in triathlon, is it, as I found out? But often it's the stronger runners that kind of come through at the end. Is that the same in para triathlon, or not so much?
Lauren Steadman:Definitely. I think within my category. You can definitely see that we often come out of the water together. Now we've managed to. You know, everyone around the world's managed to bring their swimming up to pretty elite standard.
Lauren Steadman:We're going out onto the bike and at the moment you're seeing sort of me and Claire leading the way, driving the British flag forwards, and the girls are possibly putting a couple of seconds into us on the run, but the run does come through. It's a pretty even race at the moment. Me and Claire were separated by less than three seconds just gone at the weekend, so it's getting pretty competitive out there. But definitely most triathletes that you speak to will say that they do not like the swimming part and once they're on their bike they feel happy and then their legs really hurt on the run that's a standard how triathlon is summed up, I think.
Sue Anstiss:And you mentioned briefly the transition. You know the fourth discipline of triathlon. How else have you adapted your transitions?
Lauren Steadman:So I don't have too many adaptions. So obviously, coming from the swim, getting a wetsuit off with one hand can be tricky, but make sure there are loads and loads of lube and baby oil all over so it slips off pretty quickly. Obviously, my helmet it's got a magnetic clip. I do still wear prosthesis when I race, so I've got pretty nifty now putting the sleeve on and putting the arm on, and I've managed to do a flying mount which, for those that don't know, you're running with the bike and you just jump and hope that you land on it and my shoes are both on there. So that's sorted. And the only other adaptions that I have would be on my bike, and that is both brake cables go into one lever so that I brake equally on the left side, and electric gears that allow me to just shift on the left side. I don't like to have too many adaptions because I'm pretty stubborn that way.
Sue Anstiss:Um, but yeah, that would be about it and you managed to juggle, amazingly, your education along with your training. Was training full-time an option you took seriously when you were studying?
Lauren Steadman:so since the age of 14, when I went to that boarding school, I have always maintained a full time athletic career, and again, credit to my parents. My dad said you will not always be an athlete, so you do need to focus on your academics. Your body will not be able to do what it does for years to come. So I was always pushed to make sure that I achieved the best at school and managed to get you know really good GCSE and A level grades. And then came around the big university, went to Portsmouth University. They were fantastic in helping me manage my, I suppose, career in swimming and also lectures. They would sometimes send me lectures that I hadn't been able to attend with a voice note over of all of what was said so I can make my own notes.
Lauren Steadman:Switched a couple of exams to coursework um, I remember the year of London itself. I was in South Africa, it was, you know. It was an exam period, so I got set two essays instead of that. That's fantastic flexibility and it's just appreciating how hard that elite athletes do work but can still hold down, um, I suppose, a degree or education, and for me, if I don't have something to do in between the hours of training I get a bit bored and a bit ups, you know, just a bit fidget. I found that education slots in perfectly. That's interesting. Like with my degrees, I was able to do some before training, some after, and it kept me focused, remounded.
Lauren Steadman:Yeah, otherwise you focus too much on your sport and really like sometimes going away from it and coming back to it is that you've got a fresher mind. So for me it was getting in the right balance.
Sue Anstiss:In 2015. Yeah, I just managed to get back. It was so hot I just managed to get around in that heat. I think Do the para-triathlon facilities vary at major events a lot by country.
Lauren Steadman:Yes, and I think what's great with the way that para-triathlon is moving forward, we are now integrated into most of the World Series events. You'll see the World Para Series events run alongside it. So obviously this year we joined them in Montreal in Japan run alongside it. So obviously this year we joined them in Montreal in Japan. We were out in um Lausanne at the weekend. It was a little disappointing at the weekend in Lausanne um just the way that the the lakefront worked. We had 122 para-athletes compared to the elites where you know you've got a lineup of maybe 30 40 um.
Lauren Steadman:Having that many transition stands is pretty hard to get us in um. The courses have to be adapted a little bit because you can't expect some tandems and handbikes to get up the hills. It's an impossible grind. So at the weekend we were put into not an elite transition. It was a little disappointing because it takes away that feel of you're an elite and you're at a grand final but at the same time they do everything within their power to make sure our safety is there first. We have amazing courses and the is is actually getting up there. We raced four o'clock on the afternoon so people weren't asleep still in bed, on an early sunday morning they were out and they were cheering.
Lauren Steadman:They knew the athletes that they wanted to. Myself and claire had the biggest amount of cheers going around. So that was a fantastic feeling and I think next year, after Paratravel making its debut in Rio, next year in Tokyo, it's going to be an awesome atmosphere, absolutely and other countries you've enjoyed competing in.
Sue Anstiss:Most are there venues you've gone to that you think. I think for me the ones that stick out are the ones where I've honestly won the world title.
Lauren Steadman:So Chicago for me has very fond memories um, gold Coast, actually last year, where I won my last world title. The atmosphere there was incredible. Australians love their sport anyway, so they were all keen, they were all out there, but then I think, from memory, the best course we've ever had, although there was queries around the water quality in Rio. Copacabana's setting was fantastic and normally on a 5K loop in a paratriathlon you'll pass a crowd. That's fantastic. Then you're on your own and you're just working. But because it was on the seafront, the main hub of Rio, there wasn't a break in the barriers, there was the whole way around and whether they were Brazilian or whatever country they were from, they just would see GBR and they go, go, gbr, and you'll be like that's great and it just keeps you going and gives you that bit more extra energy.
Sue Anstiss:So, yeah, rio, probably for its atmosphere and does it frustrate you that sometimes is that lack of coverage. It doesn't get the coverage it deserves. I'm thinking around a Rio footage. Actually this weekend I struggled to find the coverage.
Lauren Steadman:I would have liked to have seen a bit this weekend as well, it's very difficult, um, because obviously we have, because we have such a broad spectrum of categories and then female, male, we were racing for over two hours with like five different races going off, so you can understand how difficult it is to cover it. But there are so many people that are keen to watch paratrathlon In Rio. They did an okay job. The problem is, you know, you've got to be out on speedboats with cameras and stuff. But they did get the finish. They got, obviously, the transitions. They did really well in japan this year gone.
Lauren Steadman:Um, triathlon live, it's a good start. Yes, it's getting there. Triathlon live covered pretty much the whole race. They had cameras out on bikes, they were getting the right races and it's sometimes complicated for people to understand the classifications within it. Um, but I know that channel four have said that they will be covering it next year. Um, hopefully, you know it doesn't get the dates moved out there, because I think we've got set days for coverage, which is again, if we fall outside of those, you may not see it, but it is a start to know that people back home that can't make the trip out to japan can watch us race absolutely, and you talked a little bit about rio there, and you obviously won the silver, which was fantastic achievement, but heading into the race, many people thought that you were on for gold.
Sue Anstiss:I guess what happened.
Lauren Steadman:I think this is what's fuelled me for next year coming. I swam the wrong way, which is soul-destroying to think of now. I did go in as the favourite and it was mine to take and I had the most awesome race plan in the world. I was going to take it from the front and hold it the whole way through. Grace the American her track background athletics. She is a phenomenal runner, so my swimming background was to challenge her run. So I knew I had to really solid swim. And then I swam the wrong way and whilst I think back and I gutted, I'm also really proud.
Lauren Steadman:It was the one race where I learned something about myself. I didn't panic, I didn't go oh, it's game over. I thought you know what? Nope, turn around. And by the end of the swim I had spent a lot of energy. But I got back to second place.
Lauren Steadman:I managed to catch her within the transition and I like to be out of sight, out of mind on the bike, so if someone can't see me, they don't know where I'm attacking on power, they don't know how much I'm pulling ahead. But Grace knew that if she stayed within 10 seconds of me on the bike she could outrun me, and I even heard her coach say to her you are perfect, hold your position. And so I knew going on to the run that it was only going to be a matter of metres before she would take me. But I crossed the line, smiling I'd still managed to take a medal. Some people may not have taken a medal from that mistake, but yeah, I learned a lot. I've been very gracious about it. But it that mistake? But yeah, I learned a lot and be very gracious about it, but it will not happen again next year.
Sue Anstiss:I was going to say how do you deal with that disappointment? But you can hear in your voice almost that um yeah, I think I've learned that. Do every swim, recce, lauren, I'm sure you know the swim course, so you know as long as you take something from a failure.
Sue Anstiss:You learn from it. So Ellie Simmons has said in the past that it frustrates her when some of the members of public tell her you're not a real athlete when they're talking about Paralympics. I wonder if you've had any of that sort of ignorance and criticism at all.
Lauren Steadman:I've actually never experienced that and I feel very angry that Ellie has had to deal with that. I think there is always that line and I think it's actually sorry to say the older generations that still hold that sort of opinion and mindset. Because I think the one thing that London managed to do, you had the Olympics and everyone was so excited it was great, and then it was a bit of a oh, what do we do now? Then the Paralympics came along and because Channel 4 worked effortlessly and the whole country whether you've got your big brands like Sainsbury's got behind us it meant that there was an excellent coverage and atmosphere going into it and when I would go into schools before London, kids would just stare at my arm and the questions at the end would be all to do with my arm. After London I was seen as an athlete and they didn't care about my arm. They were like so what do you eat and how many hours do you train? So the perception changed and I think the younger generations now don't see it as a problem and I think obviously I know we're going to talk about, but I went on to strictly. There was some interesting comments on there, um, so you know that you would have a massive, massive national live television, but I think it's been a positive way.
Lauren Steadman:That disability is moving forward and if it's the one thing that the Paralympics can do as a movement whether you have everyone, I would say, has a disability maybe someone's rolled over on their ankle when they were younger so their walking's hard. You're not disabled. It's just probably quite hard for you to go and kick a football around. Everyone's got something that they can't quite do. So I think the Paralympics shows that actually there are no excuses and that these people go out there, even me. I'm missing one arm, but I can watch a guy with perhaps only one leg he's not got any arms swim 100 metres. What's your excuse if you're at home?
Lauren Steadman:So I think in that sense, the Paralympics is doing a grand job of inspiring a whole nation.
Sue Anstiss:I love that analogy of going to schools and children, just seeing you as you.
Lauren Steadman:Yeah, I have had some fantastic questions from kids. They're actually my favourite audience, like I've had how do I brush my teeth With my left hand and a toothbrush, because they get you know in their head. That was a good question.
Sue Anstiss:But I'm like right well, and you mentioned preparations for Tokyo 2020. And obviously you've recently returned from the test event which went well. Are you pleased with the result there?
Lauren Steadman:I was astounded with the results out there. I've sort of gone into this season with, I suppose, quite a bit of hope in my abilities to retain titles and race up for the best in the world, but also, aware that I had seven months out.
Lauren Steadman:My legs weren't quite what they were at the end of last year, but Tokyo itself was really humid and the heat out there was like nothing you'd ever experienced, especially not for us Brits. It was very different. So we did a lot of work based around heat and humidity chambers. I've been out the country pretty much all of this year, whether it was lanserati, portugal, at florida.
Lauren Steadman:We went on a heat and humidity camp so we were trying to work on cooling systems because obviously when you run, when you race, your body temperature gets hot. So how are we going to cool that down in a in an atmosphere that just wants to heat you up? So you know, we did lots of prep around it, trying to get the body adjusted and acclimatized, and it was definitely challenging. I've raced very well and I've learned over the years that actually I do really well in heat not entirely sure why, I just seem to love it, um, so I actually had a really good race, worked on cooling systems, whether it's ice packs or maintaining a cool body temperature before you start. But it's definitely something that next year needs to be the main focus because you can be really, really fit. But fit and heat is a whole other level, so it's definitely something that me and my coach especially, are going to work on.
Sue Anstiss:That's fascinating and this weekend, silva, you mentioned so, without giving away your training plans for the next 12 months, but their key areas that you know that you want to work on now, between now and Tokyo.
Lauren Steadman:Yeah, swim, bike run, definitely. I'm really chuffed that within a three, three and a half month period I managed to go from having dancer legs to actually being able to put out a decent amount of wattage on the bike.
Lauren Steadman:It's not been easy, but I got within two seconds of the world title this year. So I'd like to think that with a whole winter's worth of training under my belt, we're going to see me come out fighting a very powerful. Next year, I think my main focus probably going to send it more towards getting my swimming back to where it used to be as a swimmer, because I'm capable of much, much faster times. Um, on the bike, just you know, get out there, get some strength back, because I've lost a lot of muscle mass. It was about six kg which, yeah, doing strictly, which I needed because obviously poor AJ had to lift me, so he was like very grateful, um, but I obviously need that on the bike, so I've got to get that back.
Lauren Steadman:And then obviously I need to learn to uh to be able to out sprint. Claire, maybe it won't be uh down to two seconds next year, but um, yeah, so that's definitely sort of the focus on training.
Sue Anstiss:Fantastic, and we wish you well with that. I'm going to move on now to back to last year, as it were, and to Strictly when were you invited to take part in the show? How did you hear that, um?
Lauren Steadman:it came around through my management agency and I was like, oh, of course, who wouldn't consider Strictly? I mean, it's one of the best shows ever. So I went along for one of the interviews it was Giovanni, actually that I had as my little taster session and it went really, really well. So I said to Taz, as long as I've spoken to, obviously, national Federation's British Draft on my own coach and I can still achieve what I need to achieve in the sport because that's my main goal, that's my life, that's what my career is, and do strictly. Then yes, I'm game. And my coach said, yes, british Draft on as long as I delivered, which I did, I bought home delivered in strictly or well?
Sue Anstiss:I think I delivered in strictly as well. I didn't expect to go that far.
Lauren Steadman:I thought maybe you know week four, five, you know that might be it. But then the semi-finals.
Sue Anstiss:Yeah, I think both myself actually.
Lauren Steadman:AJ said to me after he was I only thought I'd get to week three.
Sue Anstiss:I was like well, thank you, aj and he was like no, you've had an amazing time. Why do you think that was Because that love, the public love and enthusiasm, probably for AJ at the beginning it was like, oh gosh, this girl's got one hand, what can I do?
Lauren Steadman:And I think most people would have that sort of idea in their head to begin with is this is going to be challenging.
Lauren Steadman:I don't quite know how it's going to go because it is an unknown, but I think he got to learn about me very quickly and my personality and how, again, the determination come across. Um, and each and every week that we went out there and performed, we wanted to show that you know, I have one arm but I can do everything. There was some challenging weeks and we got through them, but the one thing that was lovely was we managed to show a whole nation that they should believe in themselves, that they can do everything, and we had such an influx of beautiful messages whether that was stories, videos, letters that each and every week that I read them to AJ on a Monday was like OK, well, this is the focus this week and if the public love it, then they'll want to see us dance again. So we did it each and every week to make people at home have the biggest smile on their face and believe in themselves.
Sue Anstiss:And that clearly, yeah, was hugely powerful, wasn't?
Lauren Steadman:it, yeah, it worked until the samba.
Sue Anstiss:Obviously, you said it was a fantastic opportunity. And who wouldn't say no? But were you inside concerned? It would affect you Definitely.
Lauren Steadman:Not from any point of view other than my sports career. Triathlon's not easy. Triathlon takes a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of I suppose body conditioning. I was going to take seven months out of my career, a year and a half before the biggest games of my life. Was that a smart decision? Looking back now, yes, I've managed to bounce back off of that. I've managed to. I've been an athlete since I was 11 years old. I've only known sport, so I've learned. Actually there is a whole other world out there and other people have other problems, because I used to think no one knows what it's like to be an athlete and have to race. Well, no, but there's other pressures that I've now realised are in life and it's opened up my eyes for possibly what I'd want to do in a career after sport. There's so many opportunities out there and so many things I want to do to grow as a person. So definitely the right decision.
Sue Anstiss:But, yeah, I don't think I'd do it any later than when I did it, because if I was doing it this year I wouldn't be able to get my legs back in time well, I was going to move on to that actually, because, um, I know that Johnny Peacock was before you and Will Bailey, the parent table tennis guy, is doing it this year, isn't he?
Lauren Steadman:he is, yes, and I I think his um, his personality is going to be amazing on the show he's funny, but he's also self-confident in himself and I think it's going to shine across in all of his dances. Will's sport a little different to mine. He doesn't necessarily have to go out and do the hours and hours on ends, his is a skill-based sport, so I think he'll be able to get the training in alongside dance training. There was no way I could go and do a three-hour bike session and then dance, whereas I think for Will I hope he can get as far as he can but also maintain his training alongside it. So I think it's going to be a great year for Will.
Sue Anstiss:And you touched a little on how appearing on the show has normalised your disability and disability in itself.
Lauren Steadman:Yeah, I think so I mean it was just being on the show. And then when you walk down the street or you know, kids were never like tugging on their mum's arm. Mum, mum, that girl's got one arm. It was mum. That's Lauren from Strictly, and oh, it's AJ. Like, and it was lovely to all of a sudden they didn't see it as different, it was just like oh well, lauren was born without an arm, like it wasn't unusual.
Lauren Steadman:And for kids to, I suppose, not accept disability but to be, I suppose, normalised to, it means that actually there's no difference between disability and able-bodied anymore. And I think I had so many beautiful messages, like one lady message saying I've got two twin girls and we watched your first dance show on Strictly where you did your waltz, and I said to them look what Lauren's doing, there is no excuses. You girls can do anything you want to do in your life. Wow, if that was what I managed to achieve was just inspiring two little girls one evening. Wow, if that was what I managed to achieve was just inspiring two little girls one evening, my job's done thank you.
Sue Anstiss:Yeah, it was beautiful. I did cry, I confess, watching your american smooth the south pacific. So it's family favorite and the most gorgeous dance ever. What do you have a favorite? You'll have a favorite dance.
Lauren Steadman:You have a favorite dance I thought I was gonna like the latins going into strictly because I thought that, like with the waltz and the awkward head position, I wouldn't be very good. But it actually ended up that I was very good at ballroom and not the other way around. Whether that was AJ, because it's more his area of specialism, I'm not sure. But, um, I loved my Viennese waltz and my American smoothie. They were by far my favorite dances. Um, the Viennese waltz was the first time that I danced and I didn't think about the routine. It was ingrained in me and I relaxed and I enjoyed it. Um, and I didn't think about the routine. It was ingrained in me and I relaxed and I enjoyed it, and I actually still know the routine to this day.
Sue Anstiss:Maybe they kind of did it on tour, I'm not sure.
Lauren Steadman:And then the American Smooth was very similar, but just the whole. I had to pretend that I was in love.
Sue Anstiss:And.
Lauren Steadman:I could do that. I couldn't do sexy and sassy, I was awful at that but I could do the in love, the happy or the other end of the scale, where I was that, um, evil queen and I had to kill AJ.
Sue Anstiss:That was a very easy week as well. Um, yeah, one or the other, and you mentioned about your, your fame and people knowing you in the street. Do you, do you get recognized? Much, much more now.
Lauren Steadman:Um, yeah, pretty much everywhere I go. It's not as much as it is when you're in the middle of Strictly, because obviously people are aware of it. When I was with my parents at the airport in Geneva, it happened. I was in Lanzarote and I got stopped on the bike.
Lauren Steadman:It does happen and people are so positive and they're always happy to say you know, you're inspirational, yours, and that is what I want to do throughout. You know, my whole life and everything I do is inspire people, encourage them to do things that they don't think they can do, because actually you can. It's just a mindset, but it's been lovely to not get recognition for necessarily putting in hard work, but for people to to know who you are. It is great when you try hard in life. I think with everything, whether it's your parents just recognizing that you did well in your school grades, or your grandma's like, oh, look at you, it's just everyone deserves to get something back from the hard work that they put in absolutely um, you were a fantastic ambassador for the tri-january campaign we worked on this year.
Sue Anstiss:Do you think it's important to use your profile to get more people into?
Lauren Steadman:triathlon as a sport, definitely, if that's the one thing I can do is be a positive role model, um, and if that's all that you know being in the limelight as I can achieve is have such a great I suppose you could say social media following. Now that I can influence. I've got quite a younger girl generation that follow me as well, so I can influence people into different areas of things or you know, different ways of looking at things. So the tri-january for me, the idea was to, you know, get people to even join. My 50 000 was quite a big number but you know if you join my team, that's what it's going to be.
Lauren Steadman:But you could. It wasn't about against other people, it wasn't competitive, it was just about you. And, speaking from within my own family, my mum and dad did it and they put it on the wall. My dad is like 168 kilometers like he. That's just him in his day life. But when people can see it on the wall and they think I've been lazy for three days I haven't done anything it makes you accountable for it.
Lauren Steadman:So making people see that actually triathlon is a sport for everyone, any age, any ability, I think opened up the world of British triathlon because it is, and it can be in a relay and you know it's just a family oriented sort of sport. So it's one of my passions, obviously so, and I was able to help promote it and we had some great feedback and hopefully I'd like to think the campaign's going to run again because it had a lot of people get involved.
Sue Anstiss:Excellent and clearly we haven't got to Tokyo yet. But beyond Tokyo, you must contemplate that now do you think about another Olympic cycle?
Lauren Steadman:Oh, dear, I'd be even older, I think. After each Games I've gone oh, that's it, I'm retiring. And then, about six months later, I'm like no, I'm not ready for that yet so.
Lauren Steadman:I don't know how I'll feel after Tokyo. I suppose I've got a huge goal ahead of me and I'm really desperate to bring home that gold medal. So you know, if I achieve that, I don't know how I feel. Very capable of going to Paris 2024. I'm definitely still got years in me as a triathlete. I've got so much more to learn even though I've been in it for so long. You never stop learning. But I do have other goals. I'd love to do a doctorate in psychology, so I'd love to become.
Sue Anstiss:I just use your master's in psychology. After you know you must have business, business.
Lauren Steadman:After your, I really realized that I loved psychology, so Dr Stedman also has a core into it. So that'll be one of the motivations. Um, but possibly a business consultancy company as well. I'd like to combine psychology with the sports world because there is so much to learn from each other. Um obviously can bring in disability in that front. So I've got loads of areas that I find really interesting and I want to sort of shape into one um. But yeah, there's so many different avenues because at the same time, I'm really sort of loving the having the bigger public profile where I can influence people as well. So there's a lot of different avenues um that excite me. Like there's none that I'm going to rule out. So watch this space exactly watch this space.
Sue Anstiss:What do you do now to switch off from the intensity of training? So you talked in the past about academics and education dance. Are you dancing now? Still um?
Lauren Steadman:so I, my housemates, colombian anyway so naturally there's always salsa playing in our kitchen when we're cooking. So I've attended a couple of salsa lessons and I think, once I've settled, and actually what I wanted to do was get back my sports fitness before I continue. But I actually love ballroom. I do want to take ballroom classes and then maybe I could say, aj, did you fancy a dance? And show him how it's done one day. But I don't know about that, um, but at the moment I do.
Lauren Steadman:I do a lot of reading. I love reading. I'm quite busy from the spin-offs of all of Strictly, so I'm trying to do quite a lot of campaign work and stuff like that. I've been out of the country a lot and then the other one that's actually helped me quite recently is trying to get Instagram up and going. It sounds like the simplest of things and it's social media platform, but I've tried to actually sculpt in the way that, get pictures in the right way and motivate people and show them what the life of an athlete is, a paralympic athlete, um, inspire that way. So that's taken a lot of my time, um, to get the sort of right stories across.
Lauren Steadman:I wanted to really shape who I was, so if people want to find you on instagram, you're at lauren stemming with two ends, because somebody else took lauren stemming with one and I mean oh, come on outrageous.
Sue Anstiss:Yes, and finally, what advice would you give now, looking back to your 12 year old self, that girl that was starting out in swimming?
Lauren Steadman:um, there've been a lot of highs and lows and so at some point I'd want to shelter myself and say, oh, don't make that one or that one.
Lauren Steadman:But each and every one of those hardships has led me to be the girl I am today and I think the athlete I am, I wouldn't be today and have that fight in me if I hadn't have had to really work hard for it.
Lauren Steadman:But I would say to a 12 year old version of me to always keep going and that persistence and you know determination, it will shine through. And that to always make sure that I do things that I love and don't do things because others have said I should do it. And it's one thing I always say to kids if I go into school and parents can be there and and I say to them sorry, mum and dad, but make sure everything you do is because you wanna do it and your mum and dad will always support you. Don't feel you have to do it because mum says this. Mum Parents will always push you because that is their job and that is fantastic. But I think I've always gone through life and I've chosen degrees. I don't do it because I have to or because I'm good at it. I do it because I love each and every day challenging myself and having a big goal.
Sue Anstiss:So just to be positive and do it, yeah how fantastic is Lauren, such a joy to talk to and fascinating to hear her story. We wish her well for Tokyo next year and hope she can bring home that Paralympic gold. If you've enjoyed this podcast, you can find out more about all my guests at promoteprcom slash gamechangers. Thanks so much to the brilliant team at what Goes On Media who have produced the Game Changers for me. Sam Walker is the executive producer with Rory Ouskari on sound production. The Game Changers Fearless women in sport.
