NYRR Media Center

Tatyana McFadden’s extraordinary career has spanned over two decades—she is a seven-time Paralympian, 22-time Paralympic medalist, 20-time world championships medalist, and has won 24 Abbott World Marathon Majors races. With 22 medals, she is the most decorated track and field athlete in Olympic and Paralympic history. In her career, she has won five New York City Marathons, including four consecutively. In 2015, she lowered the event record by seven minutes and 20 seconds with a time of 1:43:04, a record that stood for seven years. 

In her last five races in New York City—the 2025 TCS New York City Marathon, 2025 Mastercard New York Mini 10K, 2025 United Airlines NYC Half, 2024 TCS New York City Marathon, and 2024 United Airlines NYC Half—she has finished as the runner-up. This March, McFadden will return to the city that never sleeps to participate in her sixth United Airlines NYC Half, an event she won in 2019 and 2016.

McFadden’s win at the 2021 Chicago Marathon was her 24th victory in an Abbott World Marathon Majors race, giving her more majors wins than any other female wheelchair athlete. In 2019, she won her second United Airlines NYC Half, and months later, she finished as the runner-up at the TCS New York City Marathon.  

Born with spina bifida and left at a Russian orphanage as a baby, McFadden was adopted by an American family who introduced her to sports. Her family also helped overturn federal laws that prohibited wheelchair racers and able-bodied runners from competing alongside one another at the high school level in the United States. In 2020, she co-produced and starred in the Netflix documentary "Rising Phoenix." She also won a silver medal in cross-country skiing at the Sochi 2014 Paralympics.