Newcastle's Lauren Parker believes completing her first ironman race as a paratriathlete at the 2021 World Championship in St George, Utah on Sunday AEST shows "anything is possible if you believe in yourself and never give up".
The inspirational 33-year-old, who was paralysed from the waist down in a freak training accident five years ago, finished the 3.8-kilometre swim, 180km cycle and 42.2km run in 14 hours and 47 seconds.
"It was a really tough day out, one of the toughest I've ever had in my life," Parker told Ironman Oceania post-race.
"I had a decent swim in the cold waters of St. George and I got onto the bike and I was feeling pretty good right from the start and got stronger as the day went on and I got to put a good bike together in seven-and-a-half hours, and that was my goal.
"I was all on track to getting the time that I wanted and on that run though, I've been talking all week about how brutal that bike course is but that run course was probably more brutal than ever.
"It's the hardest thing I've done so just to get through that run course, that second lap I really had to dig deep and to get up those hills was a really big challenge for me in a racing wheelchair. I proved to myself that anything is possible if you believe in yourself and never give up."
The race was the rescheduled 2021 ironman world championship and now Parker, the 2020 Paralympic paratriathlon silver medallist, has now set her sights on the 2022 event in Kona, Hawaii this October.
"One hundred per cent, that's what I've been waiting for since my accident is Kona Ironman World Championship, that's where my heart is," Parker said.
"I did it twice as an able-bodied athlete and I can't wait to get back there as a para athlete and see what I can do."
