Madi de Rozario

EVENTS:  1500m, 5000m and Marathon T54

AGE:  30 (DOB 24 Nov 1993)

COACH: Louise Sauvage

STATE: WA

AUSTRALIAN TEAM DEBUT: 2008 Paralympic Games

PERSONAL BESTS: 1500m 3:13.27 (26 May 2018), 5000m 10:59.05 (26 May 2019), Marathon 1:38.11 (5 Sep 2021)

BIOGRAPHY

In Birmingham she again finished on the podium, placing third in the T38 100m in a time of 13.13 seconds.
Madison de Rozario has been selected for her fifth Paralympic Games in Paris 2024, a journey which started as a 14-year-old at the Beijing Paralympics. She starts in Paris as the defending T54 marathon champion.

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Having been introduced to wheelchair racing by one of Australia’s Paralympic greats, Frank Ponta, Madison was always destined for superstardom. She made her international debut at just 14 (winning Paralympic silver in the women’s 4x100m T53/54 in 2008 in Beijing), and under the tutelage of wheelchair racing great, Louise Sauvage, won her first world title in 2015, crossing for gold in the women’s 800m T53 (1:53.86).

After closing out her third Paralympic campaign at Rio in 2016, with silver medals in the women’s 800m T53 (1:54.14) and women’s 4x400m T53/54, Madison shifted gears, and with a view to laying the groundwork for her greatest run to the Paralympic Games to date, she won a trio of medals at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships in London – gold in the women’s 5000m T54 (12:33.48), silver in the women’s 800m T54 (1:54.88), and bronze in the women’s 1500m T54 (3:25.56).
These successes marked a coming-of-age for Madison, and a history-making 2018 followed. Madison crossed for two gold medals (3:34.06 in the women’s 1500m T54 and 1:44.00 in the women’s marathon T54) at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, and became the first Australian to win the women’s wheelchair race at the London Marathon (1:42.58).

In January 2019, Madison recorded a world record in the women’s 1500m T53 (1:45.53), and two-and-a-half years later, this record has stood the test of time; surviving the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships, where Madison won gold in the women’s 800m T54 (1:52.15), silver in the women’s 1500m T54 (3:34.40) and women’s 5000m T54 (12:14.62), and bronze in the women’s marathon T54 (1:49:43) held in London March 2019.

When the Tokyo Paralympic Games were postponed in March 2020, Madison de Rozario was in the form of her life; the fittest and fastest she had ever been, 12 years since exploding onto the international racing scene. 

Her and coach Louise Sauvage would have to reschedule their pursuit of Paralympic gold. After placing fifth in Tokyo in her opening event the T54 5000m, she went on to claim two gold and a bronze medal. In the T54 1500m she placed third in (3:28.24), before returned to her own classification T53 where she won the 800m gold medal (1:45.99) - her first Paralympic Games gold medal.  Next for Madison in Tokyo was the marathon, where she achieved one of the great moments of the Games for Australia. She surged to a stunning victory in a Paralympic record of 1:38.11.

In a heart-warming moment Madison thanked her coach, Paralympic great Louise Sauvage and team mate Angie Ballard who placed seventh (1:52.22). 
"They are two women who have been there at every point of my career, and even in my life considering I started racing at 12 or 13. Both have been there from the beginning. At my first Games in Beijing, I raced in Angie's old race chair. I wouldn't have been able to do it without them with me here."

Coach Sauvage who did a recce of the course told her that whoever was fastest to climb the final hill of the course, would win the race. That is exactly how the race unfolded with a battle between Madison and marathon legend Manuella Shaer of Switzerland decided on the hill which led to the stadium. It was the Australian that entered the stadium first for the final lap around the track. De Rozario used every bit of strength left in her body to sprint for the win.
"It's the greatest thing I've done in my life," de Rozario said. "I didn't think that would be the result, going in."

Madison’s two gold medals is very rare. The last Australian female Paralympian in athletics to win two gold was Lisa McIntosh in 2008 and in the last 20 years, previously only Lisa and Amy Winters (2004) have achieved the feat. 

Selected for her second Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022, Madison defended the T54 1500m and marathon titles she had won on the Gold Coast 4-years earlier. Her four-medal tally, has made her the most successful Australian Para Athlete in Commonwealth Games history.

In May 2023, Madison was named in the Australian team for the Paris World Para Athletics Championships - her sixth consecutive world championships appearance, dating back to 2011. She was selected in the T53 800m, 1500m and 5000m events. After a ‘did not finish’ in the 5000m, she didn’t start in the 1500m.

Madison was selected for her fifth Paralympics, in Paris in 2024, where she will have the honour of leading the team at the opening ceremony as the team flag bearer.

Hobbies: Cats, digital artwork…Most influential person in career Her family…Hero: Louise Sauvage and Angie Ballard…Injury: At the 2014 Commonwealth Games she developed deep vein thrombosis while flying to participate at the Games. She was unable to fly home directly after the Games, until she received a medical clearance…Impairment: She contracted transverse myelitis, a neurological disorder which causes inflammation of the spinal cord, at age four.

@ 23 Aug 24 david.tarbotton@athletics.org.au