Laura Dwyer

Quick Facts

• Position: Lead
• Speciality: Mixed Doubles, Mixed Team
• Husband, Chris
• Two sons, Crandon, U.S. Marine, and Thomas, football player at South Dakota State University

Biographical Information 

In May 2012, Laura Dwyer’s life dramatically changed when she was doing her job as a landscaper- a 1,000-pound tree branch fell from 40 feet up, leaving her with 26 broken ribs, 3 broken toes, and paralyzed from the waist down as a result of a spinal cord injury in her T12 and L1 vertebrae. 

Seven years later, she picked up wheelchair curling because of a clinic in her hometown of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin saying the game reminded her at first of shuffleboard.

Dwyer was the first female alternate for the Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 and then represented the United States at the 2023, 2024, and 2025 wheelchair curling world championships in the mixed team competition. 

Dwyer, the 2025 wheelchair mixed doubles national champion, with her partner Steve Emt, represented the United States at the world championships. They finished ninth, helping finalize the United States' qualification for the event, which will make its Paralympic debut at the Milan Cortina Games. 

Off the ice, she is supported by her husband of 22 years, Chris, and their two sons, Crandon, a U.S. Marine, and Thomas, currently a student-athlete playing football at South Dakota State University.