NYRR Media Center

Manuela Schär is one of the most accomplished and dominant figures in wheelchair racing as a 10-time Paralympic medalist, 11-time world championships medalist, and three-time TCS New York City Marathon champion. Schär is set to run her fourth United Airlines NYC Half in March after she won the title last year, breaking the tape in 54:09—the fourth-fastest time in event history.

Schär placed fourth at the 2025 TCS New York City Marathon and was the runner-up at the 2024 Chicago Marathon, where she finished in 1:39:03. Earlier in 2025, she won the Berlin Marathon, breaking the tape in 1:35:08. 

Her TCS New York City Marathon victory in 2019 was the third-fastest time in the event’s history. Schär has made the podium in 10 of her 11 appearances at the TCS New York City Marathon and is also a four-time champion of the United Airlines NYC Half.

She won gold in the 800 meters at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, and silver in the 400 meters. At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics she took home five medals—more than any other track and field athlete in Tokyo—winning gold in the 400 and 800 and bronze in the 1,500, 5,000, and the marathon. That year, she also won the Berlin, Chicago, Tokyo, Boston, and London marathons. In 2022, she won Boston again, and in 2023 she won Tokyo again in a course-record time of 1:36:43. 

Schär won her first TCS New York City Marathon in 2017 after three consecutive runner-up finishes. She won her first of three consecutive Abbott World Marathon Majors series titles that year, helped by clocking what was then a world-best time of 1:28:17 to win the Boston Marathon, winning the London Marathon, and breaking the women’s wheelchair world record with a 1:36:53 victory at the Berlin Marathon.

On the track, Schär also owns a bronze medal from the 2008 Beijing Paralympics and silver and bronze medals from the 2004 Athens Paralympics, and she won four medals at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships. 

Schär has used a wheelchair since she was 8, when a playground accident paralyzed her from the waist down. She serves as an ambassador for Right to Play, an organization that helps children in disadvantaged countries take part in sports programs.