Former Shriners Children’s Philadelphia Patient Tatyana McFadden Eyes History at 2024 Paralympics

From an orphanage in Russia to a 20-time Paralympic medalist, the journey for former Shriners Children’s Philadelphia patient Tatyana McFadden hasn’t always been easy.

McFadden came to the United States very young and with many physical health challenges that quickly led her to Shriners Children’s, where she received treatment throughout her childhood. She credits that early relationship, along with the support of her family, for helping her to learn to break through barriers – and become one of the greatest track and field athletes of all time. McFadden recently qualified for her seventh Paralympics and her sixth Summer Games, and she’s ready to make more history in Paris.

McFadden was born with spina bifida, and her legs atrophied behind her back while living the first six years of her life in Russia. When she came to the United States, McFadden had surgical procedures to align her legs at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia. McFadden underwent care at Shriners Children’s growing up and said she remembers the group activities with other children at the hospital. She added that it was a great experience interacting with other kids who looked like her while undergoing care.

“I was fortunate with the group of doctors I had and the other patients I got to be around,” McFadden said. “My doctors were ahead of their time. There was a big stigma around spina bifida at the time and the things we can’t do, but not at Shriners Children’s. They provided resources for the things we can do. I always remember having a child life specialist there, which is one of the reasons I studied in that field in college. The procedures and medications at Shriners Children’s were always advanced, and I had a great doctor that helped me after the surgeries.”

McFadden won her first Paralympic medal at the 2004 Games in Athens, and is now up to 20 Paralympic medals in her career, including eight golds, eight silvers and four bronzes. If she wins two medals this summer in Paris, she will surpass one of her idols in wheelchair racing for total medals, Canadian legend Chantal Petitclerc.

McFadden added that the nonprofit healthcare system helped her in other, more unexpected ways throughout her career, including providing her with Aquaplast, used to make prosthetics. This helped McFadden develop her own custom-made racing gloves for competitions.

“Original racing gloves were almost like an oven mitt, they were really big and bulky and I wanted something durable and slimmer,” McFadden said. “They helped me create my first pair of hard gloves which is of course easy to find now, but it was a really big deal to me at the time because no one was making gloves like that. Everyone at Shriners Children’s knows each patient is very different, and they are great at customizing care for every single patient.”

McFadden’s mother, Deborah McFadden, said if Shriners Children’s was a country, it would be incredibly well-represented at the Paralympics – with roughly 30 patients hoping to participate in the games this summer. “I believe it, because I’ve met some of my other teammates from Rio and Tokyo, and they were Shriners Children’s babies or teens,” Tatyana said about her mother’s idea. “I was like, ‘Wow, that’s really cool,’ because I would’ve thought it was just a local hospital, but Shriners Children’s has a footprint that is actually worldwide and I’m part of it. That was really fun to learn. It’s true I believe – we could run our own little country.”