We’re calling it: Summer 2024 is the official Summer of Champions. Here at Well+Good, we’re celebrating the incredible athletes, coaches, and stories behind the Paris Olympics and the U.S. Open tennis championships. Tap in as we shine a spotlight on everything from the fitness routines and self-care practices of today’s top athletes to the larger cultural conversations inspired by this summer’s spectacular events.
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Tatyana McFadden is a household name at the Paralympics. After all, she’s qualified for and competed at seven of them—six summer Paralympics and one winter Paralympics. The 35-year-old Marylander is a prolific wheelchair racer, competing in a range of track and field and road racing distances—the 100-meter sprint, 400-meter sprint, 800-meter sprint, the 4×100 relay, and the marathon. McFadden has racked up 20 Paralympic medals in her illustrious career so far, as well as 24 World Marathon Majors wins in the wheelchair division.
McFadden was born with spina bifida, a condition where the spine and spinal cord don’t form properly as a fetus develops. While spina bifida affects people differently, in McFadden’s case, spina bifida meant that she was born without the ability to walk using her legs—something that was made harder by spending the first six years of her life without adequate medical care in an orphanage in Soviet-era Russia. For the first six years of her life, McFadden walked on her hands to keep up with other children in the orphanage. After her adoption by American parents and relocation to the U.S., McFadden underwent a series of surgeries and medical care to treat overly tight tendons in her back and hips.
“After all those surgeries were complete, my parents wanted me to build strength,” McFadden says in an interview with Well+Good from Paris. “They wanted me to play sports and join in with the neighborhood kids. My parents did lots of research to find a local parasports program. And we did—I did many sports through them, the first actually being learning to swim.”
“There are now a lot more competitive women [in wheelchair racing], so that will be exciting, but it also means the potential for larger broadcast audiences, sponsorships, and the ability to educate others about the Paralympics. So, it’s a good thing that this year’s Games will be so competitive.” —Tatyana McFadden
McFadden played basketball, ice hockey, swimming, table tennis, and track and field via the parasports program, but track and field held her attention immediately as her incredibly strong arms made her successful in wheelchair racing.
Today, McFadden’s love of wheelchair racing has taken her all over the world, from her first Paralympics in Greece in 2004 to this year’s Games in Paris. “I’m really looking forward to the Games this year,” McFadden says. “Each event [that I compete in] is going to be really, really tough. There are now a lot more competitive women [in wheelchair racing], so that will be exciting, but it also means the potential for larger broadcast audiences, sponsorships, and the ability to educate others about the Paralympics. So, it’s a good thing that this year’s Games will be so competitive.”
McFadden continues to shock the world with her phenomenal strength and strategy in track and field and road racing, but after 20 years of racing at an elite level, how does she avoid burnout? She shares five of her top tips for avoiding burnout in sport and in life with us below.
- She doesn’t focus on racing all the time
