Madison de Rozario has won the New York City Marathon in the women’s wheelchair division, becoming the first Australian to ever do so in the event’s 20-year history.
The Australian Paralympic champion won the marathon with a time of 1:51:01, coming in ahead of past New York City Marathon champions Tatyana McFadden and Manuela Schär.
de Rozario faced fierce competition in the marathon from Schär , the defending champion from Switzerland and five-time New York City Marathon champion McFadden, but managed to turn a tight early competition into a convincing win.
de Rozario built her lead in the second half of the race and finished three minutes ahead of McFadden (1:53:59) and Schär (1:54:02).
Madison de Rozario of Australia won her first New York City Marathon women’s wheelchair title on Sunday, finishing in 1 hour 51 minutes 1 second. https://t.co/lBF5G7ojnT pic.twitter.com/RAY50A4qMa
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 7, 2021
This was the 27-year-old’s third time competing in the New York City event, and it comes off the back of her impressive time at the Tokyo Paralympics this year, where she took home gold in the marathon. At the Paralympics, de Rozario won the marathon over Schär by just one second in a nail-biting finish.
After the race, de Rozario said being chased by McFadden and Schär “is one of the most terrifying things in the marathon”.
“So when that gap opened up, yeah. I just kind of tried to do everything I could to hold it,” she said.
“I’ve never won a marathon like that before, and I didn’t know how stressful it means to be out front like that because you really don’t know how close the next athlete is,” she said.
.@madiderozario is your 2021 #TCSNYCMarathon champion in the Women’s Professional Wheelchair Division! pic.twitter.com/itw0XpoizD
— TCS New York City Marathon (@nycmarathon) November 7, 2021
The Australian athlete said she hadn’t planned on competing the New York event this year due to Australia’s international border policies, but she changed her plans last minute when it was announced borders would open in November.
“I didn’t think I would be able to come and race in New York either, but our border opened November 1st. So very last minute, I was able to say yes,” she said. “So to kind of have it all come together here is really nice.”
de Rozario has previously won the London Marathon in 2018, where she also made history as the only Australian woman to ever win London Marathon’s women’s wheelchair event.
Speaking to Women’s Agenda on The Leadership Lessons last month, de Rozario recounted her epic marathon win at the Paralympics this year, sharing that it was one of the highlights of her athletic career.
“You kind of just hand over control to your body to do everything that it needs to do. And thankfully, on that day, it was enough just to get me over that line first. One of the absolute highlights of my career,” she said.