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Lauren Parker has capped off a phenomenal Paralympic Games campaign with the ‘race of her life’ to win the gold medal in the 28.4 kilometre H1-5 para-cycling road race at Clichy-sous-Bois on the outskirts of Paris.
The 35-year-old’s win comes hot on the wheels of Wednesday’s silver medal in the 14.2km individual time trial and her victory in Monday’s Para-triathlon.
“I am so stoked with that performance today I just can’t believe it,” said a jubilant Parker. “I really can’t believe what I’ve accomplished in these Games. I couldn’t be more happy.”
She has also become the first Australian to top the dais in two different sports at the same Paralympic Games since Vic Renalson claimed gold in athletics and weightlifting in 1968 in Tel Aviv.
In 2017 Parker was told by doctors she would never be an athlete again after she suffered a broken back, spinal-cord damage, a broken shoulder, four broken ribs, a punctured lung and a shattered pelvis when she crashed in training for the Ironman Australia triathlon.
But doctors didn’t count on Parker’s tenacity and dogged determination to compete. The next year she was third at the world championships and since then has claimed four para-triathlon world titles. At the Tokyo Paralympic Games she was an agonising one second off the triathlon gold medal which just made her more determined to deliver Monday’s win in Paris. When Games legend Kurt Fearnley suggested she was a natural for Para-cycling she set her sights on that as well and at her debut world championships last year in Glasgow won the H3 individual time trial and was second in the road race.
Parker powered her hand cycle over two laps of the challenging circuit despite feeling queasy after sampling too much of the River Seine during Monday’s triathlon swim leg.
“It worked to my strengths because I love a hilly course, I love a challenging course, and I treated it just like a time trial,” said Parker who broke clear on the first climb after six kilometres and was a minute and a half ahead at the halfway mark. “I knew I had to stay away from my competitors and leave it all out there on course so I just went hard from start to finish.
“I had no idea (how far ahead I was), I didn’t know if they were around the last corner or right behind me.”
As it turned out her finish time of 52.04 was more than four minutes faster than second placed Jennette Jansen (NED) and Annika Zeyen-Giles (GER) who claimed the bronze medal.
“I just couldn’t believe it, really, I had the race of my life, and you know, to have a big lead like that and cross the line in first place, it’s just a dream come true, like makes all the hard work pay off,” said Parker. “I’m just so relieved and so happy.”
Torrential rain early in the day caused confusion as officials firstly delayed the start by an hour, then advised the race would be cut to one lap before finally confirming only minutes before the start that it would remain at two laps.
“I’m used to things changing quite suddenly and postponements and things like that,” said Parker who remained nonchalant despite the confusion playing out around her.
“You are just forced to adapt and you can only control what you can control and get on with it. “I had a job to do out there today, and I did it.”
Watch the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games on the 9Network and 9Now live and free, and on Stan Sport from August 28 to September 8.
By: Gennie Sheer, Paralympics Australia
