Stefan Hoggan

Retired para athlete and LGBTQI+ activist

Stefan Hoggan is a retired para athlete, activist, swimming and triathlon coach and mentor who represented Scotland and Great Britain at five World Triathlon events. He is an ambassador for Disability Sport Fife and Scottish Disability Sport, encouraging young disabled people to get and stay physically active. 

Stefan began swimming at age three. He was born without a lower right arm and took up para-triathlon in 2015 after missing out on competing at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in swimming. He finished sixth at the WTE triathlon in Detroit. 

At 24, having represented Scotland for over 10 years, Stefan retired from professional sport. He now coaches the next generation of competitive swimmers at Carnegie Swimming Club. 

Stefan was part of STV’s award-winning Live at Five programme and in 2017 starred in a Scottish Government campaign to encourage more business owners to recognise the benefits of employing disabled people. 

Stefan is prominent in the campaign for Scottish independence and also campaigns passionately against bullying. He shares his own experiences, on social media and in schools, of overcoming stigma and building resilience. He says: “I believe that everyone, no matter their age, race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or gender identity has the right to live their lives free from bullying, discrimination and hate, and that’s what I’ll always continue to fight for.”

In 2018 Stefan championed the Scottish Time for Inclusive Education campaign which saw Scotland become the first country in the world to introduce LGBTQI+ inclusive sex education lessons. He is the patron of Pop’n’Olly, an LGBTQI+ educational resource whose videos and books are used in UK Primary Schools to teach about equality and diversity. Stefan sits on Scottish Disability Sport’s Young Person’s Sport Panel and is an ambassador of LEAP Sports Scotland, challenging discrimination about sexual orientation and gender identity within sport.