News Local/State

McFadden Wins Silver At Paralympics

By the Associated Press, With Additional Reporting from Illinois Public Media
 

Tatyana McFadden of Champaign added to her 10 Summer Paralympic medals by claiming her first of the Winter Games on Wednesday.

McFadden, who won three titles at the 2012 London Games in wheelchair racing, claimed silver in the cross-country one-kilometer sprint sitting event in Sochi.

Competing in the country of her birth, McFadden was cheered on by her Russian birth mother and her adopted American mother.

"They were here all day holding out for me in the snow," she said.  "They gave me a lot of extra energy and them being here pushed me forward in all my events.''

The University of Illinois graduate was also the 2013 wheelchair marathon 'grand slam' winner in the London, Chicago, Boston, and New York Marathons.
 
McFadden was born with spina bifida and moved to the U.S. at age 6 after being rescued from a St. Petersburg orphanage.