Founder

Laura Penhaul set 2 world records when she led the first all-female crew to row across the Pacific Ocean. After 4 years in preparation, they set off from San Francisco in April 2015, rowed 9,000nm and after 9 months arrived in Cairns, Australia in January 2016.

Laura is a Physiotherapist by trade and previously to founding Adaptive Performance she was Lead Physiotherapist to the Olympic British Sailing Team leading in to Tokyo 2020 and previously was the Lead for the Paralympic Programme for British Athletics, where she supported the athletes at the Rio Paralympic Games 2016. After having been to Vancouver Winter Paralympics as Lead for Paralympic skiing and then working at London 2012, she thought that rowing an ocean would give her an insight into what her athletes go through when faced with the question of wanting to give up.

Through having worked with athletes that have a strong mentality in believing they can achieve, combined with being driven to understand what it takes to achieve and overcome barriers when it seems impossible, it is this collaboration of thought and experience that has led Laura to set up Adaptive Performance.

If someone wants to be a top tennis player or bike across America, or start their own business—no matter what that goal is, Laura’s role is helping people find their passion and then putting the right experts around that person to help them achieve their goal. 

For Laura, it all comes back to the idea of human-centered performance. She strives to help people understand how to get the best out of themselves, and not just from an athletic perspective. Her role in working with people from all walks of life is to bring humanity into their performance and to help them achieve their goals, while finding the solutions, rather than barriers.