A routine training ride the week before her first professional Ironman changed Lauren Parker’s life forever.

When Lauren’s tyres burst, she flew off her bike and into a guard rail at 45km/h. She was told she wouldn’t walk again and had to learn to transition to life and sport in a wheelchair. In this episode, Lauren speaks with host Sam Squiers about growing up as a competitive swimmer and triathlete, the accident that saw her become a paraplegic, competing at the Commonwealth Games 9 months later, the chronic nerve pain which has followed her every day since her accident, winning silver at the Tokyo Paralympics by less than a second and returning to Ironman racing and Kona

Plus size, Leah Gilbert was always too afraid to call herself an athlete until she realised similar young girls need a realistic not popular idea of what an ‘athlete’ looks like.