To celebrate an action packed year of triathlon racing, we decided to look back on the season and carefully select a handful of winners for our 2023 TRI247 Triathlon Awards.
For our third award, we’re recognising the efforts of the best female paratriathlon racers, with our ‘Female Paratriathlete of the Year’ Award, picked from a shortlist of phenomenal athletes by our expert panel.
This year, the shortlist was made up of Australian Lauren Parker, Italian Francesca Tarantello, American Grace Norman and Frenchwoman Élise Marc.
The Nominees
With so many great paratriathletes making their case for this award in 2023, we were left with the tough choice of narrowing it down to a short list of just four athletes. Eventually, we came up with the four nominees, Parker, Tarantello, Norman and Marc, whose achievements we will look at in depth.
First up, Norman of the United States cemented her status as a favourite to win the gold medal in Paris next summer, as she seeks to regain the Paralympic Games title she won in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
Winning every race she entered in 2023, Norman dominated at the two most important events of the season in Paris and Pontevedra, winning both the individual and mixed team races in Spain, as she clinched the PTS5 World Championship title by more than a minute.
At just 21 years of age, Italian Tarantello impressed in just her second full season of elite paratriathlon, where she competed in the visually impaired classification. Having won the Italian PTVI national championships in May, Tarantello was also victorious on home soil at the Europe Duathlon Championship in Venice-Caorle.
After back-to-back wins on home turf, the young star continually impressed throughout the season with five further podiums, as she upgraded from a silver medal at the World Championship last year in Abu Dhabi to gold in Pontevedra.
Finally, French multiple world champion Marc, one of the most experienced paratriathletes on the circuit, was absolutely unbeatable in 2023, winning each of her five races including the World Triathlon Para Cup on home soil in Paris.
Additionally, Marc picked up a national title to go with her brilliant World Championship win in Pontevedra, as she secured back-to-back titles having also won 12 months ago in Abu Dhabi.
Each of Norman, Tarantello and Marc were more than worthy of winning the award, having enjoyed an incredible amount of success in a thrilling season. However, for our panel, there could only be one winner after a brilliant 12 months.
The Winner – Lauren Parker
Our winner for the 2023 TRI247 Female Paratriathlete of the Year Award is Lauren Parker, after the Australian continued her incredible dominance in the PTWC classification with a win streak that stretches back to November 2021.
Incredibly, Parker now hasn’t lost a race since she finished second in that exhilarating finish to Kendall Gretsch at the Tokyo Paralympic Games, with the World #1 picking up five individual wins in 2023 and a fourth World Championship title in Pontevedra.
Heading into Paris, Parker looks on course to take the gold medal after that agonising defeat in Tokyo, with her eye also on the Para-Cycling events in the time trial and road race, with the possibility of bringing home three gold medals looking increasingly likely as the games draw closer.
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