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Lauren Parker gets redemption, Leanne Taylor attains a “wild dream” at Paralympic triathlon wheelchair event

The women's PTWC category in Paris proved just how important Para triathlon is to our sport

Photo by: World Triathlon/ Petko Beier

Paralympic racing is by nature inspiring and exciting. As the Globe and Mail’s editorial board put it, the Games offer “a stirring reminder of what we are all capable of, when we refuse to accept seeming limitations.”

The Globe story goes on to cite a study conducted after the 2010 Paralympics in Vancouver that “found that 23 per cent of Canadian employers said the Games increased their willingness to hire people with disabilities,” signalling just how important the Paralympics are to our society, truly changing perspectives on disability.

Beyond all that, though, is the thrill of the competition. The women’s PTWC category at yesterday’s Paralympics provided lots of that – not to mention lots of drama thanks to the backgrounds of the athletes competing in the race.

Redemption for Parker

At the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago, reigning world champion Lauren Parker was caught just metres from the finish line by American Kendall Gretsch, who would charge across the line just ahead of Parker to take the gold medal.

“Tokyo was very disappointing for me but that only created more fire in the belly,” Parker told the Australia Broadcasting Corporation heading into the Paris Paralympics. “I know I’ve got unfinished business in Paris but that’s all I’ve been thinking about for the last three years, getting a gold medal.”

Adding a challenge to her Olympic dreams, though, Parker was in a horrible accident leading into the Games, almost snapping her leg off as her foot went into the ground while she was riding at 35 kph.

Photo: World Triathlon/ Delly Carr

Parker is used to pushing through adversity, though. She’s a former professional triathlete who lost the use of her legs in a cycling accident in April, 2017. Just three months after she got out of hospital after six months in a spinal rehabilitation unit, Parker won the bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Gretsch was born with spina bifida and arrived in Tokyo as a multiple gold medalist from the Winter Paralympics in 2018 in biathlon and cross country skiing.

The category features PTWC1 and PTWC2 competitors based on the degree of severity of the athletes’ injuries. As a PTWC2 athlete, Gretsch left 3:38 behind the PTWC1 athletes (including Parker).

Parker was in the lead after the 750-m swim and, maintained a lead of a shade under two minutes after 20 km handcycle portion of the race. Once onto the racing wheelchairs for the final 5 km, Gretsch would gain a bit more time, but not nearly enough as Parker would hold on for the gold medal by 1:23.

“I can’t believe I was able to do it today,” Parker told World Triathlon after the race. “It’s been a long journey for me to get here and I couldn’t be more proud and more happy to get the gold medal. After getting second at Tokyo by less than a second, that’s been a big driving force over the last three years, every single day, through every single training session. I’ve worked so hard to accomplish what I’ve done today.

“Sport brings emotional rollercoasters week-to-week,” Parker continued. “I’ve been through a lot emotionally, personally, physically. A bike accident and lots of other things in the last three years I’ve had to overcome. It’s been a big, three-year build-up. I’ve said ever since Tokyo that I want to get gold in Paris and I will get gold in Paris.”

“Any time we race against each other I know it’s going to be a hard race,” Gretsch said after the race. “Today it was no exception. This course is phenomenal. I gave everything I could today and also the past three years leading into this. That was the best I could do. I am just so proud of everything I did to get here. That’s all you can ask for. Ever since Tokyo I knew this race was going to be so hard. To have a chance to even be close to Lauren it was going to be a really tough race.”

Taylor takes bronze at first Paralympics

While she was never in a position to take on Parker or Gretsch for the first two spots on the podium, Canada’s Leanne Taylor was pushing for her “wild dream” of a medal in Paris. Six years ago Taylor was in a mountain bike accident and paralyzed from the waist down. Determined to “get her life back,” Taylor turned to para triathlon. She almost qualified for the Games in Tokyo, and continued to improve over the next three years.

“This whole journey started out as a wild dream,” Taylor said. “It really wasn’t until earlier this year that we then dared to dream a medal was possible.”

Six years ago she thought her life was over. Now she’s a Paralympic medal contender

As she finished the cycle portion of the race and was being put into her wheel chair for the final run by her handler and husband Scott Dyck, Taylor was in fourth place, not far behind Brazil’s Jessica Ferreira. Ferreira crashed early on the run course, which put Taylor in that dream position for the bronze medal.

“When I was on the run, my coach (Carolyn Murray) had told me I was in third. I saw which athletes were behind me and what the gap was, so I realized all I had to do was hold on,” Taylor said after the race. “Coming into the finish chute, I was just looking for my husband to let him know that we had done it.”

It wasn’t just her husband on hand to enjoy her bronze-medal performance. A group of 29 supporters from home were on hand – bearing flags and dressed in red and white – to cheer her across the line.

“I had so many friends and family that are here to support me. It meant so much to me to have a performance that got them to cheer even louder than they already were,” Taylor said. “This medal means a ton to me. There is a massive group of people (here and at home) who supported me to get to this point. Just to have something to now show them, that this is why we did it, and it was worth it. Having that tangible item to say this is the work we put in, is huge. I’m so excited to go home and thank the people whose medal this really is.”