‘The bug’ first saw her capped sixteen times by Wales in hockey.
Sugar says there were a couple of exercises she could never do – like hopping – but otherwise her lack of ankle movement never held her back.
It was not until she watched London 2012 that she even realised she had a disability that qualified her for the Paralympics.
She switched to sprinting and made the finals of both the T44 100m and 200m at Rio 2016 – finishing fifth in both.
But then she was approached by British Canoeing and was offered a trial in the KL3 classification.
The lack of obvious similarities between the two sports left Sugar sceptical at first. In fact she jokes she did not tell anyone about her switch from athletics until she knew whether she was going to be good at it.
Fortunately for her she was.
In her first season in 2019, she won bronze at the European Championships and then silver at the World Championships.
But she admits it took a lot of hard work to get there.
“It wasn’t just with a snap of the fingers,” Sugar continued.
“To be competitive in this event, you’ve got to be sub-50 seconds [over 200m] and my first few time trials were 72 seconds. So I was way off!
“But I’ve always been a bit of a sponge and I literally just listened to the coaches. I just said ‘you tell me what to do and I’ll do it’.
“I knew I had the strength. Even in the gym tests when I started, I was better than other athletes. I just hid behind the scenes and worked hard.
