{"id":22387,"date":"2025-10-30T11:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T11:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/22387\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T11:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T11:19:11","slug":"nyc-marathon-how-three-paralympians-are-gearing-up-for-the-tcs-new-york-city-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/22387\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC MARATHON | How three Paralympians are gearing up for the TCS New York City Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Daniel\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Daniel Romanchuk, Susannah Scaroni and Tatyana McFadden are ready to race.<\/p>\n

Photos courtesy of Team USA, The Spokesman, and TatyanaMcFadden.com<\/p>\n

The TCS New York City Marathon, produced by New York Road Runners, is known as one of the hardest marathons to conquer due to its course snaking through the city\u2019s five boroughs and going over five different bridges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It demands not just physical endurance, but mental as well \u2014 the climb up the Verazzano-Narrows Bridge is already a mile long.\n<\/p>\n

It might be more difficult on wheels, but Paralympians Tatyana McFadden, Daniel Romanchuk and Susannah Scaroni have battled against physics, pavement, and pain to not just complete the marathon, but win the whole event as well, against some of the fastest racers on wheels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tatyana McFadden<\/p>\n

Besides being the most decorated U.S. Paralympian track athlete with 20 medals \u2014 eight golds \u2014 and 24 World Major Marathon wins, McFadden has always been a strong advocate for the Paralympic Movement<\/a>, starring and producing in the Netflix documentary \u201cRising Phoenix<\/a>\u201d to highlight Paralympic athletes and their journeys.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McFadden was born with spina bfida, and after being adopted from a Russian orphanage, she and her family overturned laws that prohibited wheelchair racers and able-bodied athletes from competing next to one another in high school competitions in the U.S.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s won the \u201ctough, but really rewarding\u201d NYC marathon five times, including four consecutively in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. However, she had a severe blood clot from her feet all the way up to her abdomen in 2017 that almost stopped her racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was probably the hardest part of my career, deciding, \u2018Do I continue, or do I figure this out?\u2019\u201d McFadden told amNewYork. \u201cI decided on option number two, and it was scary. It was really, really daunting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Training for 30 minutes felt \u201cimpossible,\u201d but she got herself back up to speed and competed again in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. She thought it would be her last, saying, \u201cThe field was getting tougher, everyone\u2019s getting faster.\u201d However, the Maryland native still came out with a gold medal in the 4x100m universal relay, a silver in the 800m T54 race and a bronze in the 5000m T54 race. She won another silver and bronze medal four years later in Paris.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just proud of myself that eight years later, here I am, still being top three and not giving up on a really hard challenge,\u201d McFadden said.
\n\"Tatyana<\/a>Tatyana McFaddenPhoto courtesy of University of Illinois Alumni Association\n<\/p>\n

Daniel Romanchuk<\/p>\n

Romanchuk missed out on the Chicago Marathon due to a dislocated shoulder injury but is looking to get back in his race chair in time to defend his 2024 NYC Men\u2019s Wheelchair Division.<\/p>\n

The marathon is one of the Paralympians\u2019 favorites of the year due to the climbs and he will be going through the five boroughs with his sister, making this year \u201cextra special.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Mount Airy, MD, Romanchuk\u2019s hometown hills played a major role in Romanchuk\u2019s racing career, especially when it comes to New York.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very, very hilly course, so lots of lots of bridges, which I enjoy climbing,\u201d Romanchuk told amNew York. \u201cI\u2019m used to the hills, so I love the first mile, not so much the second mile. I like climbing, not so much descending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Romanchuk got his start with the Bennet Blazers<\/a>, an adaptive sports program in Baltimore, MD. He was swimming at the age of three, playing wheelchair basketball at four and taking part in sled hockey at five.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played a lot of the different sports that they offered, all the way until I aged out of the program,\u201d Romanchuk said. \u201cI\u2019d say it was around 2015 that I kind of prioritized racing. I still did other sports \u2014 if there was a conflict, I would go to the racing event.\u201d<\/p>\n

His dedication to racing has won him a pair of gold and bronze medals across the 2016, 2020 and 2024 Paralympic Games, as well as becoming one half of the first American duo in NYC marathon history to win both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s wheelchair events alongside Scaroni.<\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/a>Daniel Romanchuk.
\nSusannah Scaroni<\/p>\n

With marathon wins in Boston, Sydney and Chicago already this year, Scaroni is aiming to add a fourth to this year\u2019s honors by defending her NYC marathon title.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe day before [the Chicago marathon], I was in a good mental space,\u201d Scaroni told amNew York. \u201cI was feeling good going into it and wanted to see what would happen, honestly. So I just had some great food throughout the day, rested, and was it pretty at peace, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Romanchuk, Scaroni considers climbs and hilly races one of her strengths, meaning she prioritizes New York in the fall the most.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything will be asked of me, and more to finish New York,\u201d Scaroni told amNew York. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s not really the competition part. It\u2019s more about how personally challenging and rewarding finishing New York is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scaroni broke McFadden\u2019s course record in 2022 to take home her first NYC marathon win and has podiumed 19 separate times at Abbott World Marathon Majors races. Scaroni has also hauled in one gold, one silver and four bronze medals in the 2020 and 2024 Paralympics for Team USA.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s looking forward to competing on home turf in 2028 in Los Angeles, and is also \u201cpumped because of all the impacts it can have on our nation for exposure to para sport and the different classifications and different kinds of para sport available.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat does so much for communities, does so much for individuals,\u201d Scaroni said.
\n\"Susannah<\/a>Susannah ScaroniPhoto courtesy of Team USA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniel Romanchuk, Susannah Scaroni and Tatyana McFadden are ready to race. Photos courtesy of Team USA, The Spokesman,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14841,2792,9,56,63,65,2791,64,14842,14843,14844,12847,14845],"class_list":["post-22387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-daniel-romanchuk","tag-marathon","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-marathon","tag-nyc-news","tag-paralympians","tag-susannah-scaroni","tag-tatyana-mcfadden","tag-tcs-new-york-city-marathon","tag-wheelchair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}