Tatyana McFadden raced the final leg in the 4 x 100m universal relay at the Paris Paralympics.
Her sprint secured a bronze medal — one of 105 medals won overall by Team USA at the Paralympic Games — but it also pushed McFadden into an outright lead of greater personal significance.
Two nights previously, the 35-year-old wheelchair para-athlete claimed silver in the 100m T54 category. That had put McFadden into a tie for the all-time record for the most medals in U.S. Paralympic track and field history.
The relay bronze took her across the line to claim the record solo, furthering her remarkable legacy. She also has a Winter Games medal, a silver from Sochi 2014 in cross-country skiing.
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Before traveling to the Paralympics, McFadden had shared photos on social media from a “going away party” attended by family and friends in Clarksville, Md.
One of the pics shows the athlete with her proud parents, Deborah McFadden and Bridget O’Shaughnessy, who have been together for 40 years.
In recent days, they have been celebrating their daughter’s success, having made the trans-Atlantic trip to cheer her on. Deborah wrote “She did it!” on Facebook before adding: “21 track medals + 1 cross country skiing for a total of 22 medals!!!”
Meanwhile, Bridget has been sharing Team USA graphics about Tatyana on her personal Instagram account.
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You might already know some of the details of their heartwarming family story.
Tatyana arrived in the U.S. aged six, having spent her life until that point in a Russian orphanage.
Paralyzed from the waist down having been born with spina bifida, she had formed a strong bond with Deborah, who had previously run an international adoption agency and was visiting in her then role as commissioner of disabilities in the U.S. health department.
The opportunity arose to adopt Tatyana and bring her to Clarksville, where Deborah was living with her partner Bridget. Tatyana’s new parents enrolled her in the Bennett Blazers, a para-sports club in Baltimore.
By the age of 15, she was thriving so much that she was selected for the Athens Paralympics in 2004, bringing home a silver and a bronze to begin her magnificent medal haul.
Together, the family unit battled discrimination. As a same-sex couple who had adopted three daughters from overseas, Deborah and Bridget were sadly used to witnessing prejudice and ignorance.
Deborah also had experience of being treated differently due to having a disability. Years earlier, in graduate school, she had developed the neurological condition Guillan-Barre syndrome and had used an electric wheelchair scooter and then crutches for eight years.
After Athens, Tatyana was denied a spot on her high-school track team due to claims that she had an unfair advantage and that her chair represented a safety hazard. With the support of her parents, the fight to enact “Tatyana’s Law” began and it was eventually passed in 2008.
There were three more silvers and another bronze for McFadden at the Beijing Paralympics that year, with the gold rush beginning in London 2012 (three) and continuing into Rio 2016 (four).
Her eighth gold was won in Tokyo, in the inaugural 4x100m universal relay race. Those Games were held a year after the release of the Emmy award-winning Netflix documentary “Rising Phoenix” in which McFadden featured prominently.
She regularly posts about her moms, describing them as “incredible strong and independent women” and celebrating occasions such as Pride Month.
The Paris 2024 chapter of their story would come to a close on the last day of the Games, when McFadden finished seventh in the marathon.
Alongside images with Deborah in Paris, she reflected on her experience and thanked her family and friends, writing: “Proud is an understatement; I am incredibly grateful for every moment, every challenge, and every victory that has brought me to this point.
“Thank you once again for your support and for being a part of this incredible journey. I look forward to what the future holds!”
