Tatyana McFadden

Tatyana McFadden (born April 21, 1989 ) is an American Paralympic athlete competing in the category T54. McFadden has won twenty-two Paralympic medals across multiple Summer and Winter Paralympic Games. She also won the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability in 2015 and James E. Sullivan Award in 2025.

Biography McFadden was born in Leningrad, then Soviet Union, on April 21, 1989. She was born with spina bifida, a congenital disorder that paralyzed her from the waist down. After her birth mother abandoned her in an orphanage that was too poor to afford a wheelchair for her, 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. While in the orphanage, she met Deborah McFadden, who was visiting Russia as a commissioner of disabilities for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Deborah and her partner Bridget O'Shaughnessy adopted Tatyana and took her to live in Baltimore.

McFadden took up a variety of sports while growing up to strengthen her muscles: first swimming, then gymnastics, wheelchair basketball, sled hockey and track and field. McFadden attended the University of Illinois studying for a degree in Human Development and Family Studies, was a member of the Theta chapter of Phi Sigma Sigma, and was on the University of Illinois wheelchair basketball team.

Competition McFadden began racing at the age of eight. 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, including New York City in 2010, Chicago in 2011, London in 2011, and Boston and New York in 2015.

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

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. McFadden also won the Boston, Chicago, London, and New York marathons in 2013. This made her the first person – non-disabled or otherwise – to win the four major marathons in the same year. She also set a new course record for the Chicago Marathon (1 hour, 42 minutes, 35 seconds). McFadden finished in 5th place in the Women's . Just over a month after Sochi, McFadden returned to wheelchair racing at the London Marathon, where she successfully defended her title in a new course record time.

In 2015 McFadden won the NYC marathon, and broke its women's course record by seven minutes and 20 seconds (her time was 1 hour, 43 minutes and four seconds). She was also a leader of an ultimately unsuccessful effort against a 2012 Russian law to prohibit adoptions of Russian children by American parents. She is featured in the 2020 documentary film Rising Phoenix.

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

Tatyana McFadden near halfway point of Boston Marathon 2018 in which she got first place. 2003: Member of U.S. Paralympics Track & Field National Team 2004: Silver medal, 100m; Bronze medal, 200m – 2004 Summer Paralympics 2005: Gold medal, 100m; Two silver medals, 400m, 800m; Bronze medal, 200m – IPC Open European National Championships, Espoo, Finland 2006: Gold medal, 100m (WR); Two silver medals, 200m, 400m,) – IPC World Championships, Assen, The Netherlands 2007: Three second-place finishes, 200m, 400m, 800m – Meet in the Heat, Atlanta, Ga. 2007: Two first-place finishes, 200m, 800m – U.S. Paralympics Track & Field National Championships, Atlanta, Ga. 2007: First place, 200m (WR) – Boiling Point Wheelchair Track Classic, Windsor, Ontario, Canada 2007: Two gold medals, 400m, 800m – Paralympic World Cup, Manchester, United Kingdom 2008: Silver medal, 200m T54; silver medal, 400m T54; silver medal, 800m T54; bronze medal, Women's 4 × 100 m relay T53/T54 – 2008 Summer Paralympics. 2010: Won the Open Women's Division of the Shepherd Center Wheelchair Division of the AJC Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta with the time of 23:47:66. 2011: Won the 2011 Open Women's Division of the Shepherd Center Wheelchair Division of the AJC Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta with the time of 23:39:26. 2012: Won the 2012 Open Women's Division of the Shepherd Center Wheelchair Division of the AJC Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta with the time of 23:53:08. 2012: 100m T54; 400m T54; gold medal, 800m T54; 1500m T54; marathon –2012 Summer Paralympics. 2013: Won the women's wheelchair divisions of the Boston, Chicago, London, and New York City marathons in 2013.