WASHINGTON, December 11 (By Carl Schreck for RIA Novosti) – US wheelchair racer and Russian adoptee Tatyana McFadden relishes uphill battles.
It’s the coasting that makes her edgy, especially as she tries out for the US ski team at the Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi next year.
“I remember taking a little tumble on the snow because I got pretty scared of how fast I was going,” McFadden, 24, told RIA Novosti. “But I really do enjoy climbing. So whenever I see a hill, it makes me pretty happy that I get to climb.”
McFadden, who was adopted from a Russian orphanage at age six, is vying to represent the United States as a Paralympic cross-country skier in Sochi, where she hopes to continue what is arguably the most dominant record of any elite athlete in the world over the past 15 months.
She captured three gold medals and a bronze in wheelchair races at last year’s London Games, six golds at the world championships in July, and became the first athlete ever – male or female, able-bodied or disabled – to win the marathon “grand slam” in one year with victories in Boston, London, Chicago and New York.
“It’s definitely been an incredible year,” McFadden said.
McFadden was born with an underdeveloped spinal cord and spina bifida, which causes paralysis of the lower body. She spent the early years of her life in a St. Petersburg orphanage before she was adopted by Debbie McFadden, who enrolled her in sports programs in Maryland.
She went on to excel as a competitive wheelchair racer but said she was motivated in part to try ski racing as well because she has enjoyed hitting the slopes as a hobby.
“I’ve always enjoyed skiing, and I’ve tried alpine skiing, but it’s way too fast for me,” McFadden said. “And so I figured: ‘You know, why not try cross-country skiing?’”
In January, she was named to the US women’s team for the International Paralympic Committee’s Nordic Skiing World Cup in Cable, Wisconsin, where she was the top US finisher in three events with one fourth- and two fifth-place finishes.
Last month, McFadden’s achievements were recognized by the United States Olympic Committee, which named her the Athlete of the Month.
The US team for Sochi is expected to be named in early January, and while McFadden says she is focused on competing, she says the fact that the Games will be held in the country of her birth would make a spot on the team particularly meaningful.
“It’s very important for Russia to have these games, because it’s about showing that Paralympic athletes are just like any other elite athletes, that they can go to school, they can travel, they can live on their own,” McFadden told RIA Novosti.
Russia lags considerably behind the United States and Europe in terms of accessibility and integration for the disabled, despite the government’s efforts to improve the situation in recent years
McFadden is also acutely aware of her status as a poster child for the power of international adoption to give orphaned or abandoned Russian children – especially those with disabilities – a second chance in life.
She has been a vocal critic of a politically tinged law signed by President Vladimir Putin last December that prohibited US citizens from adopting Russian children. The ban was part of Russia’s response to the United States’ so-called Magnitsky Act, which introduced sanctions against Russian officials suspected of human rights abuses.
Critics of the ban say it will deny tens of thousands of children the chance of a normal family life. Officials in Moscow have said the law is necessary to stem what they portray as endemic, sometimes deadly, violence and neglect suffered by Russian adoptees at the hands of their US parents.
“Being born in Russia and being adopted by an American family, I think that would be a living example … of a success story,” McFadden told RIA Novosti. “If I wasn’t adopted, I wouldn’t be doing sports. I don’t know where I would be.”
McFadden said she hopes the Russian fans in Sochi will respond to her story and support her should she secure a spot on the US team. But she said racing will be her paramount concern at the Games, which are set to run for 10 days from March 7, one month after the Sochi Winter Olympics.
“I do think adoption is very important,” McFadden told RIA Novosti. “But going into these Games, I’m going in as an athlete, and I’m very excited to ski and to compete and to see amazing athletes from around the world.”
