Australian athlete Madison de Rozario has claimed second place in this year’s Boston Marathon women’s wheelchair race.
She crossed the finish line with the time of 1:31:11. It was five seconds after American Susannah Scaroni, making this the third time De Rozario has taken the podium at the world’s oldest annual marathon.
In both 2019 and 2022, De Rozario finished third in Boston behind Scaroni.
An Australian athlete has yet to claim gold at Boston since Louise Sauvage did it for her fourth time in 2001.
Having trained under Sauvage, De Rozario last year told the ABC that “Louise is my coach but she’s also someone who has probably had the biggest impact in making me the athlete that I am”.
Regarded as one of Australia’s greatest athletes, de Rozario was just 14 when she won her first Paralympics medal as part of the Women’s T53/54 4x100m relay in Beijing in 2008.
She was the first Australian athlete to win four gold medals in any Para sport at the Commonwealth Games and, in 2021, she was the first Australian woman to win the New York City Marathon. Nine of her 20 medals are gold.
Determined to use her platform to influence change even outside of sport, Rozario advocates for authentic diversity in society, with a specific focus on people with disability.
This led her to win Athlete of the Year in 2022, beating an impressive lineup of athletes, including Ash Barty, Jess Fox, Emma McKeon, Sam Kerr and Tia-Clair Toomey.
During her acceptance speech for the award, de Rozario said: “For women’s sport, I couldn’t be more proud of every athlete in this room.”
“I think we get to use this platform to do something that’s so much more important than racing or running a play. We’re all doing that, and to be part of that right now, we’re jumping through hoops right now and those that come after us aren’t going to have to do that.”