{"id":504211,"date":"2026-02-26T00:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T00:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/504211\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T00:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T00:59:13","slug":"lauren-parker-to-become-dual-paralympian-at-milano-cortina-2026-winter-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/504211\/","title":{"rendered":"Lauren Parker to become dual Paralympian at Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newcastle athlete Lauren Parker is set to become the eighth Australian to compete at both the Summer and Winter Paralympics, with the gold-medal-winning triathlete to contest the cross-country skiing and biathlon events in Italy.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old won two gold medals and one silver<\/a> at the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympics, across triathlon, road race, and the ITT H3 events (individual time trial, hand-cycling).<\/p>\n

She also picked up a silver at the Tokyo 2020 Games.<\/p>\n

\"Lauren<\/p>\n

Lauren Parker competes in the para-triathlon mixed relay at the 2025 World Triathlon Championship Finals. (Supplied: Aus Triathlon\/Delly Carr)<\/p>\n

Parker said she first tried snow sports about a year ago, and had never skied until June last year.<\/p>\n

“It’s happened so fast, and I’ve put in a lot of hard work, and I’ve had to learn a lot of skills really quickly,” she told ABC NSW Mornings with Paul Turton and Christie Dawes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I’m just so excited and so happy that I was able to get the job done.<\/p>\n

“I’m still learning every part of this, and I’ve been enjoying that challenge.”<\/p>\n

Parker said a close friend who was affiliated with Snow Australia introduced her to the world of skiing.<\/p>\n

“[They] reached out to me and said I could have some potential in the sport of cross-country skiing if I wanted to give it a go \u2026 and it’s not too late to try and qualify for the Paralympics,” she said.<\/p>\n

“When someone dangles that in my face, I’m always up for the challenge.”\"Lauren<\/p>\n

Lauren Parker is set to become the eighth Australian to compete at both the Summer and Winter Paralympics. (Supplied: Paralympics Australia)<\/p>\n

Incredible feat<\/p>\n

Cross-country skiing sees athletes compete in a 2.5-kilometre sprint, 10km and 20km races, or a team-style relay.<\/p>\n

Biathlon takes cross-country skiing and combines it with target shooting, a skill Parker learned by being “thrown in the deep end”.<\/p>\n

“I picked up the rifle for the very first time two days before racing in Canada in December, so that was the first time I ever shot an actual rifle,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I’m doing all three events for biathlon and also all three events for the cross countries as well \u2026 so I’ll have six events in total.”<\/p>\n

Three-time Paralympic medallist Christie Dawes, now an ABC presenter, said Parker’s achievements and ability to adapt were remarkable.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Lauren Parker won gold in the H1-4 road race at the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympics. (Supplied: Paralympics Australia)<\/p>\n

“[The winter events she’s competing in] have a similar action to wheelchair racing, which she does as one of her legs in the triathlon,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I’m so proud of her, doing the double \u2026 the Winter and the Summer Games \u2014 it’s not unheard of, but it is rare for Australians.<\/p>\n

“I think the fact that she’s been able to achieve so much in such a short amount of time tells you that she has the determination, the persistence and the dedication to really knuckle down and try something new and nail it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newcastle athlete Lauren Parker is set to become the eighth Australian to compete at both the Summer and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,31079,253374,189416,253375,253373,15992,3184,85,132296,195271],"class_list":{"0":"post-504211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-biathlon","11":"tag-christie-dawes","12":"tag-cross-country-skiing","13":"tag-dual-paralypian","14":"tag-lauren-parker","15":"tag-paralympics","16":"tag-road-race","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-triathlon","19":"tag-winter-games"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}