Biogrpaphy
In the middle of every adversity, lies opportunity. Anything is possible if you believe
“ HeALing is a matter of time.
I always saY...If I had to have my accident for a reason…
I hope that I inspire just one person.
That would make it all worth it ”
From struggle to strength.
My name is Lauren Parker and I am a professional athlete from Newcastle, NSW, Australia. I have been an elite athlete most of my life having a swimming and surf lifesaving background before starting triathlon when I was 19. From an early age, I was very successful winning multiple State and National Championship swimming titles, several state titles in Surf Life Saving, 5km open water swimming National Champion, and at the age of 14, I competed at the Olympic Games Trials. Following success in the pool I changed my focus towards triathlon and in 2009 I was identified as having a high potential in the sport of triathlon.
During my late teens and early 20’s I was really struggling emotionally. I was dealing with self harm and body image issues... and for the past 16 years I have been in constant battle with eating disorders. Having sport in my life was, and is, my outlet. I have come through the other side and want to bring hope to any female out there that is suffering the same, to stay strong and believe that you are worthy.
After several years of training and racing I became one of the best triathletes in the world in my age group. I started off with short distance triathlon and then soon realised I was best suited to the long distance and Ironman events after winning my age category at the Port Macquarie Ironman in 2014. Ironman consists of a 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride, and a 42.2km marathon run. Winning my first Ironman also qualified me for the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii, which is the pinnacle of the sport. Since 2014 I have qualified twice for this event and achieved a 2nd place podium finish in 2015. In 2016, I turned professional and found myself on start lines with the best athletes in the world. During my time as a triathlete I suffered from 8 stress fractures in my legs. Not from over training but a bone deficiency. This was a massive set back. I never actually competed in a triathlon with a full run preparation but I knew I had the ability to run fast. Overcoming each injury taught me a lot of things especially patience but also resilience to never give up despite what was thrown at me.
During my late teens and early 20’s I was really struggling emotionally. I was dealing with self harm and body image issues... and for the past 16 years I have been in constant battle with eating disorders. Having sport in my life was, and is, my outlet. I have come through the other side and want to bring hope to any female out there that is suffering the same, to stay strong and believe that you are worthy.
“It all begins with attitude and perspective. if i could go back to my old life, i would live so differently.
I would APPRECIATE the little things and be GRATEFUL for life, because the world is at your feet”
— Lauren Parker
the accident.
After racing in Europe and a solid training block back home in Newcastle, NSW, I was preparing for the Port Macquarie Ironman as my first major attempt of winning as a professional athlete. I had the best preparation I’d ever had and was feeling really good leading into the race which was to be held on May 7th, 2017. Three weeks out from the race, on April 18, 2017, my life completely changed in a split second when I was involved in a bike accident while on my final training ride for the Port Macquarie Ironman. With only two minutes to go on this ride, both tyres exploded after hitting some screws on the road. I was travelling at 45km per hour and following the explosion I was dramatically thrown into a guardrail. The accident left me with a number of serious injuries including a punctured lung, broken scapula, broken ribs, fractured pelvis, broken back and spinal cord damage leaving me instantly paralysed from the waist down. I was rushed to hospital for spinal surgery to fuse my broken spine. That very same day my surgeon gives me the most horrifying news, which was that I had a 0-1% chance of ever walking again and that I would spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair. I believed my life was over. I often think back to that first night in hospital when family and friends had gone home and I had just been told I'd never walk again. It was one of the worst nights of my life. I felt trapped and I couldn't escape or literally move. I was told by the doctor that not being able to walk was the easy part... the hardest part was living with a spinal cord injury and dealing with the things associated with that, which not many people know about. He was right.
I then began the road to recovery spending 3 months in Royal North Shore hospital in Sydney and 3 months in Ryde Spinal Rehab Centre. One significant moment occurred in Rehab when I got into the pool for the very first time post my accident. I thought I would be able to get in and swim laps just like I used to do, but this wasn’t the case. My legs just sunk to the floor like a dead weight. I couldn’t put two strokes together. This was another devastating day for me because I’d spent 20 years training to be a fast swimmer and swimming 12-16km a day in a pool for most of my swimming career, and now it had all gone to waste. My friend, Brad, was there this particular day and he said to me, I have two options. One, was that I could go back to my hospital room and give up, or two, I could stay in the pool and choose to not give up, and keep trying. I chose the second option, to not give up and by the end of that session I swam three continuous laps of the 15m pool. This was a significant life-changing day because I proved to myself that anything is possible with a never give up attitude. If I had of chosen the first option, I wouldn’t be where I am today and back competing in the sport I love.
the start of a new life.
During my time in rehab I was chatting to a good friend of mine, Bob Babbitt, on his radio show. During the show he asked me if I wanted to get back into triathlon. At this point I didn't know it was possible but I said 'sure I do'! Bob told me about para-triathlon and that It 'was' possible to get back into sport. In that moment I found some new hope and new goals. At the end of my time in Rehab, Bob offered me to travel to San Diego, to be hosted by the ‘Challenged Athletes Foundation’ for a triathlon weekend. Here I met hundreds of other people of all ages who had been challenged physically in different ways and that had overcome their own barriers. All of these people had life-changing stories of their own. Being part of this event was an experience that had an enormous impact on me. I saw that every single person had a smile on their face which gave me the hope that, if they can do it, then I can do it. If they can be happy, I can be happy. I was inspired and found my motivation for triathlon back again. Following this trip, I decided that I would return to training and find out how I could get involved in para- triathlon. I learned to swim with a wetsuit for buoyancy, ride a hand-cycle, and run in a racing wheelchair. Contact was made with Triathlon Australia who were very keen to help me and they suggested to line up for a Para-triathlon race in Melbourne, in January 2018 which just happened to serve as a trial for the Commonwealth Games. I definitely amazed myself and that day I qualified to represent Australia. Only 11 months after my accident, I was on the start line at the Commonwealth Games, Women’s Para- triathlon race, consisting of a 750 swim, 20km ride, and now a 5km racing chair run. To top it off I finished 3rd winning the Bronze Medal. Following the Commonwealth Games, 2018 continued to be a great year achieving two world series titles in France and Italy.
Fast forward 12 months, I won my first World Title in 2019 and I have defended my title in 2021, and 2022.
In 2020 I qualified for the Paralympics in Tokyo. This was a journey of ups and downs, triumphs and setbacks…and the interruption of Covid delaying the games until 2021.
I won a Paralympic Silver Medal on 29th August 2021.
Neuropathic pain.
Not many people would know this because I rarely show it in public life, but I suffer from severe, and one of the worse cases of neuropathic (nerve) pain. When my spinal cord was crushed, it crushed and damaged all of the nerves that go through the body below the injury level, so that is why I'm getting pain. I have nerve pain from my chest to my feet, through my whole body...not just on the surface but everywhere on the inside.. it's 24/7.. It feels like I'm being stabbed with needles all over my body.. it feels like razor blades are cutting me up.. it feels like I'm burning alive and on fire.. it feels like boiling water is being poured over me.. it feels like electrical currents going through my body.. and it feels like my body is being eaten alive by acid. That is how I describe my pain. Neuropathic pain is hard to treat because there is no cure. Most people that suffer from nerve pain following a spinal cord injury, the pain comes and goes. The pain I have is constant and never goes away. There are only limited medications that might be able to help and reduce it but I have exhausted all the options. Nothing works. I have had spinal cord surgeries to try and reduce the pain and they haven't worked either. I have worked with pain specialists, but the amount of pain that I have is even too hard for them to understand. How do I live with it? Well, I do know that I can't live with it forever.. and as it stands at the moment.. every second for the rest of my life I am in pain. When I wake up I'm in horrendous pain.. when I go training I'm in pain.. when I try and do daily tasks I'm in pain.. when I'm going for coffee with friends I'm in pain.. when I'm on the start line of a race I'm in pain.. when I go to bed I'm in pain. When everyone else can go to bed and be comfortable, I'm literally screaming in pain. I don't get sleep. Sport and training keeps me alive because I can concentrate on the other sort of pain I put myself through from training.. the good pain. Before my accident I didn't know this pain even existed. Unless you live with it, you don't really understand how bad nerve pain is. It's debilitating and affects quality of life. How can anyone live in constant pain like this? I'm good at dealing with pain and I do my best not to show it on my face when I'm in public but it's mentally and physically exhausting. Everyone looks at me and sees everything that I'm achieving and thinks my life is pretty good. Although those things are great... my life is far from great and I would give anything to go back to my old life and be an able-bodied person again. For now, I am staying strong and I hope that in sharing this, that it inspires you to be the best you can be.. gain some perspective.. and make the most of life and the opportunities you have.
Complications & Spinal Cord injury.
In 2018 I developed a complication with my spinal cord. I started losing some feeling down my right arm to start with. Than I started losing feeling on my right hand and if I stuck a needle in the top of my hand I could hardly feel it. I also couldn't feel hot or cold temperature on my right hand and if I felt something like fabric or clothes or texture I had to feel it with my left hand otherwise I wouldn't know what it felt like. I ended up going to a hand specialist and they did some tests on the day but said it was just a pinched nerve. I was about to go overseas for some World Series races so the doctor said it was still ok to go and then when I get back if the pinched nerve symptoms are still there than he would treat it. So I went overseas and while I was overseas the symptoms just kept getting a little worse day by day. I knew in myself that there was something else wrong. I started getting a numb feeling on the back of my shoulder and the feeling from my belly button to the top of my chest was impaired and became more numb with just a slight feeling. I just needed to get the races done and get home so that I could get an MRI of my spinal cord. So that’s what I did on my return. I had my MRI just to check if everything was ok, but it wasn’t. It showed that I developed a serious condition called a Syrinx or Syringomyelia. This is when spinal fluid that is supposed to be on the outside of your spinal cord gets inside of the spinal cord and travels slowly up the cord. The spinal fluid had travelled all the way up to my neck causing pressure and damage to my spinal cord at C8-C6. This explains the loss of feeling down my right arm, hand, back of the shoulder and impaired feeling up to my chest. The next day I was rushed to Sydney for an 8 hour 40min surgery to drain the fluid out. If I didn’t get an MRI when I did I would have lost more feeling and possibly down both arms. Luckily I found what was wrong. I spent 2 weeks in hospital recovering. After the surgery unfortunately the symptoms that I had already lost, did ‘not’ recover. So there is still a strip down my arm that I cannot feel. The top of my right hand is numb and I have lost a bit of strength in that hand. I also can’t feel hot or cold temperature on my hand. I’m still numb or have impaired feeling on the back of my right shoulder and other areas of my back, and still have impaired feeling up to my chest. The neuropathic (nerve) pain also rose from my waist to my chest and when clothes rub on the skin on my chest and torso area, its uncomfortably painful. This is just another thing I have to accept and live with. Syringomyelia is a rare, life long condition and affect 8 out of 100,000. It progresses over the course of your life. Unfortunately there is no cure.
Since 2017 I have achieved 8 x World Championship titles whilst also going through 4 x spinal cord surgeries…
2 x wrist surgeries… Skin infections… 3rd degree burns over 8 toes… and a burn which needed a skin graft
In 5 years of doing Para-Triathlon I have achieved four World Triathlon titles… two Ironman World Championship titles (hand-cycle category)… 70.3 Ironman World Title (hand-cycle category)… and UCI Para-Cycling Time Trial World Title. It hasn’t been an easy journey being at the top at my sport whilst also going through a lot of setbacks, health issues & surgeries, and trying to come to terms with my new life in a wheelchair. Although every time I get knocked down, I get back up, and I keep fighting.
This is how I succeed.
My goal now is to qualify for the 2024 Paralympic Games in both the Para-Triathlon and Para-Cycling events… and bring home 3 Gold medals.
One more year… lets go… make it count… and live with no regrets!
