Fittingly, our ‘Alumna of the Month’ is former Olympic badminton player, Lauren Smith, who left William Howard in 2010.
After completing her A Levels, Laura attended Leeds Metropolitan University to study Sports Coaching, as well as starting a full-time training schedule (twice a day on court plus a physical) in addition to her studies.
After 2 years at university, she moved to the National Centre, where she completed the final year of her degree, graduating in 2015.
Since then, Lauren has competed in badminton at two Olympic Games – Rio and Tokyo, where she reached the quarter finals. She’s also competed in three Commonwealth Games, winning seven medals. In 2019, Lauren was European Champion and reached a career high, world-ranking of 7. Lauren still travels the world competing.
Lauren’s advice to current students is: “Find enjoyment in what you do. If you have that, you will work harder at it and are more likely to succeed.”
