Lauren began her sporting career in athletics with ambitions to become a professional track athlete. She made a difficult choice to return to her home country of America in the middle of her Loughborough studies and transferred her skills to bobsled during a time of worldwide uncertainty.
Despite this, she gained key skills during her time at Loughborough, including discipline, dedication, time management and resilience, and earned a MSc Marketing degree.
We caught up with Lauren to find out more about her journey so far, how her training is going and what the road to 2026 looks like for a budding bobsledder.
“I’d love to say that this was all planned, but as any runner will tell you, momentum played a huge factor in this athletic journey. My time representing Loughborough University as a member of the first team athletics program occupied a lot of my mind throughout the process, so my sights were always set on the next race, and not necessarily the next step in my career. I kept competing and was fortunate enough to keep winning, and then covid came along.”
Lauren faced a huge decision:
“The world, as we all know, came to a standstill and the borders were rapidly closing and I was faced with the most difficult decision of my life - risk my athletics career or risk being cut off from my family during a time of great uncertainty. I made the tough decision and found myself on the last flight to JFK to bunker down with my family while looking for any possible avenue to continue competing in the sport I love.
“I continued training. As track meets after track meets got cancelled, a new opportunity presented itself in the form of a bobsled. After receiving an invitation to join Team USA as a development bobsled pilot, I graciously traded my track spikes for ice spikes and once again packaged my life into a bag and headed to Lake Placid to learn an entirely new sport, in an entirely new place, during a period that was entirely shrouded in uncertainty.”
She headed off on her new adventure and clearly took to her new sport.
“As of now I have been selected to represent Team USA at Junior World Championships out in Winterberg, Germany this January.”
The season got off to a good start earlier this year as she placed 2nd overall as a bobsled pilot at the National Push Championship in Lake Placid, competing among several Olympic medalists.
As she sets her sights firmly set on representing Team USA at the next Olympic Games, a number of challenges lie ahead.
“This season I am raising money to get to Europe to learn another track or two!
“Last year I was the top USA sled to finish at Junior Worlds and I hope to do it again. Afterwards I hope to spend some time in Lake Placid NY for some racing and then get back to Europe for some Europa Cup races if I can afford it. Unfortunately, bobsled is not a government funded sport so most athletes on my team, including myself, are left to fund our own journeys to the Olympics.”
Lauren is working hard to fund her passion on top of her intense training regime and competes wherever she can. She recently competed in the North America Cup in the Women’s Monobob, placing 5th on day one and 7th on day two. She said:
“I have had incredible experiences with Team USA! Since I was little it has been my dream to not only be a professional athlete but wear “USA” on my back.
“Since joining the team, I have done just that as I have been competing nationally in both USA and Europe. In fact, just last week I took home my first medal ever in the sport of bobsled when I competed in mono bobsled on the fastest bobsled track in the world, Whistler.”
Following that brilliant result, Lauren won her first gold medal just over a week later in the mono bobsled races in Park City, Utah. She added:
"This is a huge moment in my career because a first place finish on the North American Cup tour is equal to finish in 13th on World Cup in terms of points. On the second day I finished 4th and I was also the top USA sled in the competition. I actually tied for first with a returning Olympian - we had the same down times on both runs which is super rare!"
We wish Lauren all the best as she continues her season, and we will continue to follow her journey over the next few years.