Team USA’s Tatyana McFadden can truly do it all.
McFadden, 35, earned her 21st career Paralympic medal Wednesday, tying her with Bart Dodson for the most Paralympic track and field medals won by a U.S. athlete.
McFadden secured the silver medal in the women’s T54 100m, a category for wheelchair racers, in a time of 15.67 seconds. She finished behind Belgium’s Lea Bayekula, who set a new Paralympic record of 15.50 seconds. Finland’s Amanda Kotaja took the bronze in 15.77 seconds.
“The accomplishment is absolutely wonderful, just to stay in the longevity of the sport, and, really, not giving up, and just keep going through anything that can happen — through injuries, through races that you’ve lost or that you’ve won,” McFadden told NBC after her runner-up finish. “I’ve really learned it’s the journey along the way.”
This silver medal performance marks McFadden’s first podium finish at the Paris Paralympic Games.
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On top of her extensive disability advocacy, McFadden has participated — and medaled — in every Summer Paralympics since Athens 2004. The American has consistently won medals across a range of distances from the 100m to the 5,000m on the track, and even in the marathon. She has even tried her hand at the Winter Paralympics, winning silver in the 1km sprint in cross-country skiing at the 2014 Sochi Paralympic Games.
McFadden is set to race in the women’s T54 400m Thursday, an event she won gold in at both the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Paralympics. Additionally, she will compete in the women’s T54 marathon on the morning of Sept. 8. McFadden is a five-time New York City Marathon champion and won silver in the 26.2-mile race at the Rio Games.
