Tatyana McFadden Becomes Most Winning American Track and Field Athlete

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Tatyana McFadden Becomes Most Winning American Track and Field Athlete

• September 04, 2024
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With a silver medal victory in the Women's 100 Meter, Nike athlete Tatyana McFadden has become the most winning American track and field athlete of all time, Olympian or Paralympian.

In her seventh Paralympic Games, Tatyana now has 21 Paralympic medals, including eight gold medals and silver and bronze podiums dating back to Athens 2004. Tatyana achieved her latest medal in the women's T54 category, a classification for track athletes who compete in a wheelchair and have no leg function.

"My superpower is strong, I'm a strong woman," she says. "What motivates me is changing the sport, to be more inclusive, to have more equality, to have more accessibility for people with disabilities who want to get involved with Paralympics or just want to get involved with youth programs or adapt to sports in general."

For Tatyana, it hasn't been an easy journey to 2024. "I came from such a high in 2016, winning absolutely everything, every major marathon, all of my events at Rio and then I was diagnosed with a blood-clotting disorder," she says. "It's been a really hard climb up. I've focused on being more confident and still believing in myself that I can do it, because I know that I can."

Tatyana says the people that inspire her to be the best she can be every day are her coaches and her family, who she says have sacrificed a lot for her to be the successful athlete she is today. As she looks forward, Tatyana says she's "now redefining myself and what my goals are for the next four to eight years," noting that her aim is to win 30 major marathons and medal in her Paris events.

Tatyana has been a part of Nike's Athlete Think Tank since 2023, where she's helped the brand champion women and girls and expand sport for a younger generation. "The best advice I can give for the next generation is that life isn't about what we don't have, but what we do with the gifts we're given," she says.