Angela Madsen

Angela Madsen (May 10, 1960 – June 21, 2020) was an American Paralympian sportswoman in both rowing and track and field. In a long career, Madsen moved from race rowing to ocean challenges before switching in 2011 to athletics, winning a bronze medal in the shot put at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. Madsen and teammate Helen Taylor were the first women to row across the Indian Ocean. She died in June 2020 while attempting a solo row from Los Angeles to Honolulu.

Early life and education Madsen was born in Xenia, Ohio, on May 10, 1960.

Military career Most of Madsen's immediate family were military, so when her brothers told her she "couldn't make it as a Marine", it made her determined to join. With therapy, she slowly recovered. She found work as a mechanic in the Sears automotive department and later at U-Haul. But she could not keep up such physically demanding work and took a desk job as a mechanical engineer. Then in 1992 she broke a leg and some ribs in a car accident. Already suffering from spinal degeneration from the basketball injury, she had corrective surgery the next year, which left her with both legs paralyzed.

The Marine Corps refused to pay Madsen's medical bills following the car accident, and Madsen lost her home while her marriage fell apart. She had depression and became homeless, sometimes sleeping in her wheelchair in front of Disneyland. She wrote an autobiography, Rowing Against the Wind, published in 2014.

Rowing career Madsen was introduced to rowing when her wheelchair basketball sponsor invited her to a learn-to-row event in Dana Point. She found she was a natural at the sport and liked that she did not need to use a wheelchair to participate. Madsen was also part of a team that circumnavigated Great Britain. Also in July 2016 Madsen was announced as a member of the US team to compete at Rio in the 2016 Summer Paralympics, where she finished eighth in the women's shot put F56/57, and seventh in the women's javelin throw F55/F56.

In November 2014, Madsen received the Athletes in Excellence Award from The Foundation for Global Sports Development in recognition of her community service efforts and work with youth.

She held six Guinness World Records and was working toward another (as the oldest woman and first paraplegic to row across the Pacific alone) at the time of her death.

Personal life Madsen came out as gay in 1981, while in the US military. In 2015 she was a grand marshal for the Long Beach Pride Parade. Madsen resided in Long Beach, California.

She was found dead nearly halfway into her solo row from Los Angeles to Honolulu on June 22, 2020. The journey was being filmed by Soraya Simi.