Lauren Boden (athletics) is a four-time Commonwealth Games representative who debuted at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games when she was just 17-years-old. The then teenager swapped her school shoes for spikes as she made her senior Australian debut, going on to finish fifth in her heat in the women’s 400m hurdles. Boden returned at the Delhi 2010 Games to compete in the 400m hurdles just narrowly missing the medals in fourth place and as part of Australia’s 4x400m relay team which also just missed out on the medals finishing in fourth. She repeated the feat at the Glasgow 2014 Games, before completing a rare triple at the Gold Coast 2018 Games, competing in the 400m hurdles, 4x400m relay and the long jump. The ACT native represented Australia at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics. Boden had ambitions of competing at the Tokyo Games and continued to train through COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, but sadly she narrowly missed out on rankings in the qualification period. A 13-time national champion, Boden announced her retirement in January 2022, after an illustrious career spanning over 15 years, to head back to the classroom to continue her career as a teacher.