Triathlete Lauren Parker set to swim at challenged athletes event in San Diego

The 28-year-old triathlete was on a routine training ride near Raymond Terrace on April 18 when both her tyres blew, sending her crashing into a guard rail and leaving her paralysed from the waist down.

Now, six months after being told she had a one per cent chance of walking again, the determined and inspirational Novocastrian is set to swim in a challenged athletes triathlon in California.

Parker will be discharged from Royal Rehab in Ryde on Tuesday before flying to the United States on Thursday bound for San Diego and the October 22 event.

There, Parker will do the 1.6-kilometre swim leg.

It will signal the start of the next part of her journey, which continues to be painful every day both physically and mentally.

“I’ve had up and down days, but I’m just trying to look to the positives and do the best I can with what I’ve got in the sport that I love,” Parker said.

The trip came about after a radio interview with respected Hawaii Ironman hall of famer Bob Babbitt.

“He heard my story and wanted to interview me over the phone, and he asked me if I would like to go to San Diego for the triathlon, and invited me there as well as the Challenged Athletes Foundation, who helped fund flights and accommodation,” Parker said.

The call coincided with Parker’s return to the pool at Royal Rehab. In the days after the phone interview, she decided she would like to compete.

“He just wanted me to be there for the weekend to meet people and get some contacts, then I sent him an email saying I’m going to do the swim leg with a pro triathlete who’s going to do the bike, and he got a runner for the team and it all just sort of happened,” she said.

Getting back in the pool, three months after her accident, was a pivotal yet painful moment.

“I was really excited getting in the pool, but the first time was devastating,” Parker said.

“I trained for 20 years to be a fast swimmer and spent so many hours in the pool, doing the hard yards.

“I would swim an hour, an hour and a half, knock out five or six kilometres without even thinking about it. So to get in the pool and not be able to swim was devastating.

“In training, when I was a swimmer, we used to do sets where we tied our feet together, but it’s nothing like that. Your legs just sink.”

Parker found wetsuit pants which help her “to swim semi-OK”, and she has managed sessions as long as 4km.

When asked how she thought the open-water swim in San Diego would go, she replied: “I’m not sure yet. I don’t know if I’m going to be last out of the water.”

Whether she is first or last, the telling factor is that she is attempting it.

At the time of her accident, Parker was training 35 hours a week and was eyeing a top-three finish at the Ironman Australia Triathlon in Port Macquarie.

She was second in her age group at the 2015 Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii, and competing there again remains a focus. That means being able to do a 3.8km swim, 180km hand cycle and 42km in a track wheelchair.

It is widely regarded as the toughest sporting event on the planet, and wheelchair athletes face the same cut-off times as able-bodied athletes.

“I’ve got a lot of work to do. It took me 10 years to build up my legs to be strong and get to where I needed to be, and now I’ve got to start from scratch building up my arms. I’ll get there,” she said.

Another goal is the 2020 Paralympics “or the one after”.

Mostly, she wants to walk again.

“To be honest, I hate it like this. I don’t want to live in a chair,” Parker said.

“My hope is in research, that something will come out that will make me walk. My ultimate goal is to be able to walk, above anything else.

“Everything is harder in a chair. Everyday living, the way people look at you when you’re out in public.

“Everything is all new, and there’s a lot of challenges I didn’t even know wheelchair people have when I was walking.”

One person who has been of great support and inspiration to Parker is John Maclean, who was paralysed from the waist down in a training accident in 1988. 

He has gone on to be the first wheelchair athlete to finish the triathlon course at Kona, swam the English Channel, sailed in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race and represented Australia at the Paralympics.

More recently he has worked with NeuroPhysics therapist Ken Ware and after 25 years in a wheelchair has been able to walk again.

In time, Parker hopes her story can also help motivate others.

“I really want something to come out my journey and this happening to me,” Parker said. “I want to inspire other people, to bring awareness to spinal cord injuries.”

Parker has been overwhelmed by an outpouring of support from friends, family and the community.

If it was not for those close to her, like long-time friend and training partner Brad Fernley, who was with her on the day of the accident and will accompany her in the swim leg in San Diego, she said: “I don’t know where I’d be.”

Friends have established the Lauren Parker Foundation to help raise funds for future treatment and rehabilitation costs and are organising a charity ball at Wests New Lambton on March 17. Visit laurenparkerfoundation.com.au.