Emma Wiggs

Canoe

Region

Diseworth, Derbyshire
Date of Birth

13/06/1980
Classification

KL2 & VL2

Bio

Emma Wiggs MBE is one of the most decorated athletes in paracanoeing history, with Paris her fourth Paralympic Games and third in canoe. She retained her VL2 (va’a) title for her third Paralympic gold overall with a time of 58.88 seconds over the 200m course at Vaires-sur-Marne near Paris to win by more than a second.

She achieved her second medal of the weekend finishing two and a half seconds behind teammate Charlotte Henshaw in a ParalympicsGB gold-silver double in the Women’s Kayak single 200metres KL race.

She won KL2 gold as paracanoeing appeared at the Paralympic Games for the first time at Rio 2016. At Tokyo 2020, she won a second Paralympic gold medal, this time in the VL2 .

In Tokyo, she also went on to claim silver in the KL2 to become the first female athlete to win two Paralympic paracanoe medals at a single Games.

Wiggs secured the 12th world title of her glittering career in Szeged in 2024, dominating the VL2 final to win gold, taking her career world tally to 16 medals in total.

Already a four-time European champion and two-time silver medallist, Wiggs won double gold at the event for the first time in 2022.

Those performances saw Wiggs achieve her second paracanoe ‘Grand Slam’, holding the Paralympic, European and world titles within the calendar year.

Her first paracanoe ‘Grand Slam’ came in 2017 and she was awarded an MBE for services to canoeing in the 2017 New Year Honours.

Wiggs grew up in Watford and excelled at hockey. At 18, while on her gap year, she contracted a virus that initially paralysed her and left her with irreparable damaged nerves in her legs.

Wiggs was determined to pursue her chosen career as a PE teacher; studying sports science and gaining a PGCE in secondary PE.

Major Results

Paris 2024 Paralympic Games

Women’s Va’a Single 200m VL2: Gold
Women’s Kayak Single 200m KL2: Silver

Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games (Tokyo, Japan)

VL2 200m - gold
KL2 200m - silver

Rio 2016 Paralympic Games (Rio de Janiero)

KL2 200 metres: Gold

London 2012 Paralympic Games

Sitting Volleyball

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