Paralympians Robyn Love and Laurie Williams are total couple goals – here’s all you need to know
Robyn Love and Laurie Williams are a queer couple going for gold. (Behrouz Mehri/Getty)
We’re still reeling from the incredible Paris Olympics but the good news is that the Paralympics, where LGBTQ+ athletes are also growing in numbers, are just around the corner.
At least 175 out queer athletes competed in this years Summer Olympics, with Team LGBTQ+ winning a total of 43 medals and – unofficially – ending in 7th place.
Now, some 27 out LGBTQ+ Paralympic athletes will be competing for medals.
Seven of them are were in Team GB, including wheelchair basketball couple Robyn Love and Laurie Williams – and we absolutely need to tell you all about their love story, which is basically a Hollywood film.
Robyn Love and Laurie Williams have been together for almost 10 years and welcomed their first child, Alba, the Gaelic term for Scotland, in April.
Their return to Paris will be a memorable trip because Love proposed under the Eiffel Tower 18 months before they took to the court together at the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021. “I almost managed to get down on one knee,” she joked, according to Outsports.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Robyn said: “I didn’t see LGBT people, disabled people, never mind the two things combined. Personally, I didn’t see myself represented in media.”
On the increased coverage of disability sports, Williams noted: “That exposure, it not only educates people but also gets people into the sport. I wish when I was younger, I would have seen it on television and I could have started younger.
“I started pretty young but you want to be able to participate in sport like your able-bodied counterparts.”
Who is Robyn Love?
Love was born in Scotland, with arthrogryposis, a rare condition in which the muscles are shortened and/or missing, leaving her right leg shorter than the left. She first took part in the Paralympics in Rio eight years ago, alongside Williams.
But, a bit like in a movie love story, Love watched Williams compete at the 2012 Paralympics in London before meeting her in 2014 and becoming part of Team GB.
Love is keen to expand her horizons when it comes to sports and recently announced she will be retiring from international wheelchair basketball. Tennis is her first love, so she may be swapping courts in the near future.
Who is Laurie Williams?
Paris will be Williams’ fourth Paralympics and her speed around the court earned her the nickname Whippet.
An undiagnosed viral infection as a baby left her with a condition called motor neuropathy, causing damage to the nerves in her trunk and legs.
She made her Team GB debut at the Paralympics World Cup in 2009, aged 17.
So let’s all join together in wishing Robyn Love and Laurie Williams the best of luck for the 2024 games!
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