Tatyana McFadden

Tatyana McFadden

Tatyana McFadden at the 2009 Paralympic World Cup
Personal information
Nationality	American
Born	(1989-04-21) April 21, 1989 Leningrad, RSFSR, Soviet Union
Sport
Sport	Running
College team	University of Illinois Wheelchair Basketball and Wheelchair Track and Field teams
Medal record Women's Track and Field (T54) Representing United States Paralympic Games 2012 London 400m - T54 2012 London 800m - T54 2012 London 1500m - T54 2004 Athens 100m - T54 2008 Beijing 200m - T54 2008 Beijing 400m - T54 2008 Beijing 800m - T54 2004 Athens 200m - T54 2008 Beijing 4x100m - T53-54 2012 London 400m - T54 IPC World Championships 2013 Lyon 100m - T54 2013 Lyon 200m - T54 2013 Lyon 400m - T54 2013 Lyon 800m - T54 2013 Lyon 1,500m - T54 2013 Lyon 5,000m - T54

Tatyana McFadden (born April 21, 1989) is a Russian-born United States Paralympian athlete competing in the category T54. McFadden has won 10 Paralympic medals in the Summer Games and is currently targeting the Winter Paralympics in sit Ski competitions.

Biography

Tatyana McFadden was born in the Russian city of St. Petersburg with spina bifida, a congenital disorder that paralyzed from the waist down. Her birth mother abandoned her in an orphanage that was too poor to afford a wheelchair for her, so she walked on her hands for the first six years of her life. The doctors told her she was so sick that she had very little time to live. There she was seen by Deborah McFadden, who was visiting Russia as a commissioner of disabilities for the US Health Department. She adopted her as a single mother, and took her to a new life in Baltimore.

To strengthen her, McFadden took up a variety of sports: first swimming, then gymnastics, wheelchair basketball, sled hockey, and track and field. McFadden is currently attending the University of Illinois studying for a degree in Human Development and Family Studies, and is on the University of Illinois Wheelchair Basketball team. But it is in racing that she has made her fame.

Competition

Tatyana McFadden began racing at the age of eight. Competing in the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, Greece, she won a silver medal in the women's 100 metres - T54 event, a bronze medal in the women's 200 metres - T54 event, finished fifth in the women's 400 metres - T54 event and went out in the first round of the women's 800 metres - T54 event. She also competed at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, China, where she won a silver medal in the women's 200 metres - T54 event, a silver medal in the women's 400 metres - T54 event, a silver medal in the women's 800 metres - T54 event, a bronze medal in the women's 4 x 100 metre relay - T53-54 event and finished sixth in the women's 100 metres - T54 event.

Until 2009, McFadden specialized in shorter distance sprints. Then, being in Chicago for her university studies, she entered the much longer distance Chicago Marathon, as a lark. Unexpectedly, she won, finishing so soon that her mother didn't have her camera ready to record the victory. That was the first of a series of marathon victories for her, New York in 2010, Chicago in 2011 and London in 2011.

McFadden's coach at the University of Illinois is Adam Bleakney, himself a veteran wheelchair racer.

Tatyana and Hannah McFadden were the only sisters to compete in the same Paralympic final (100m - T54 in London 2012).

McFadden won the Boston, Chicago, and London marathons in 2013. McFadden became the first athlete to win six gold medals at a championships during the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon. She claimed gold in every event from the 100 meters through to the 5,000 meters. This makes her the first person - able-bodied or otherwise - to win three major marathons in the same year. She also set a new course record for the Chicago Marathon (1 hour, 42 minutes, 35 seconds).

Activism

McFadden had difficulty competing at high school. Her school Atholton High School, would not allow her to race at the same time as able-bodied runners, with officials saying her racing chair created a safety hazard and gave her an unfair advantage (as the best wheelchair racers are noticeably faster than runners over long distances). She had to compete in separate wheelchair events at high school meets, meaning that she would circle around an otherwise empty track by herself, which embarrassed her. In 2005 Tatyana and Deborah McFadden filed suit against the Howard County Public School System and won the right for her to race at the same time as the runners starting in 2006, though her score would not be counted for her team.

Her legal victory led to its own controversies, though. In 2006, one of her Atholton teammates lost her victory in the 1600 meters at the state championships after McFadden was ruled to have been acting as a "pacer" for her, by encouraging her rather than racing on her own. And in 2008, McFadden collided with a rival runner from Bishop McNamara High School after a 200-meter race, inflicting bruises and cuts to her legs and making her miss her conference title meet from the injuries.

McFadden's lawsuit is credited for the eventual passage of the Maryland Fitness and Athletics Equity for Students with Disabilities Act, requiring schools to give students with disabilities the opportunity to compete in interscholastic athletics. She was also a leader of an ultimately unsuccessful effort against a 2012 Russian law to prohibit adoptions of Russian children by American parents.

Achievements

The women's wheelchair race at the 2011 London marathon (left to right: Sandra Graf, Shelly Woods, Tatyana McFadden, Amanda McGrory).

• 2013: Won the women's wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15, hours before the race was marred by deadly explosions near the finish line. Six days later on April 21 she won the London Marathon in the same division.
• 2013: Won the women's wheelchair division of the Chicago Marathon for the third consecutive year on Oct. 13, 2013, in a course-record time of 1 hour, 42 minutes, 35 seconds.
• 2012: 100m T54; 400m T54; gold medal, 800m T54; 1500m T54; marathon - Paralympic Games, London, United Kingdom
• 2012: Won the 2012 Open Women’s Division of the Shepherd Center Wheelchair Division of the AJC Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta, Georgia with the time of 23:53:08.
• 2011: Won the 2011 Open Women’s Division of the Shepherd Center Wheelchair Division of the AJC Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta, Georgia with the time of 23:39:26.
• 2010: Won the Open Women’s Division of the Shepherd Center Wheelchair Division of the AJC Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta, Georgia with the time of 23:47:66.
• 2008: Silver medal, 200m T54; silver medal, 400m T54; silver medal, 800m T54; bronze medal, Women's 4 x 100m relay T53/T54 - Paralympic Games, Beijing, China
• 2007: Two gold medals, 400m, 800m - Visa Paralympic World Cup, Manchester, United Kingdom
• 2007: First place, 200m (WR) - Boiling Point Wheelchair Track Classic, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
• 2007: Two first-place finishes, 200m, 800m - U.S. Paralympics Track & Field National Championships, Atlanta, Ga.
• 2007: Three second-place finishes, 200m, 400m, 800m - Meet in the Heat, Atlanta, Ga.
• 2006: Gold medal, 100m (WR); Two silver medals, 200m, 400m,) - IPC World Championships, Assen, The Netherlands
• 2005: Gold medal, 100m; Two silver medals, 400m, 800m; Bronze medal, 200m - IPC Open European National Championships, Espoo, Finland
• 2004: Silver medal, 100m; Bronze medal, 200m - Paralympic Games, Athens, Greece
• 2003: Member of U.S. Paralympics Track & Field National Team

External links

• Tatyana McFadden at the International Paralympic Committee
• Tatyana McFadden at IPC.InfostradaSports.com (archived)
• Tatyana McFadden's Official Website
• USA Paralympic Team Profile