Clarksville Paralympic Athlete Up for Team USA Award

A Howard County Paralympic athlete has been nominated for a Team USA award following the Rio games, and fans are invited to help her to the finish line by voting online. Tatyanna McFadden, 27, who grew up in Clarksville, is up for the 2016 Female Athlete of the Paralympic Games Award.

At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, McFadden medaled in all six individual events she entered. She won four gold medals (in the 400-, 800-, 1,500- and 5,000-meter events) and two silver medals (in the 100-meter and the marathon). She reportedly tied with swimmer Jessica Long for the most medals among U.S. Paralympic athletes in Rio.

Vote for McFadden as the 2016 Female Athlete of the Paralympic Games until 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 23.

The awards will be presented at a Team USA ceremony that recognizes the outstanding achievements of athletes in the following six categories:

• Female Athlete of the Paralympic Games
• Male Athlete of the Paralympic Games
• Team of the Paralympic Games
• Female Athlete of the Olympic Games
• Male Athlete of the Olympic Games
• Team of the Olympic Games

The finalists were selected based on nominations from each National Governing Body and High Performance Sports Organization, according to a statement from Team USA.

McFadden, whose sport is track and field, was nominated for Female Athlete of the Paralympic Games along with Becca Meyers, a Baltimore swimmer; Shawn Morelli, a Pennsylvania cyclist; Grace Norman, an Ohio paratriathlete; and Becca Murray, a Wisconsin basketball player.

Before moving to the U.S., McFadden walked on her hands to get around because of a condition called “spina bifida,” meaning she had a hole in her spine, during her childhood as an orphan in Russia.

Once she was adopted into a family in Howard County, her family enrolled her in sports to help her build strength, which has translated into a career as a Paralympic athlete. Her first Paralympics was in 2004, when she earned a silver and bronze medal in the 100- and 200-meter races in Athens. She graduated from Atholton High School in Columbia in 2008 and the University of Illinois in 2013. Between the two, she won her first gold medal in 2012 in London.

The six winners for the Team USA Awards will be announced at 7 p.m.on Wednesday, Sept. 28, at Georgetown University’s McDonough Arena in Washington, D.C., where more than 600 members of the 2016 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams are expected to attend. The ceremony will be broadcast on NBC Sports from 10 to 11 p.m. on Oct. 4.

Submit your picks for Team USA awards until 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 23.

See Also:

• Clarksville Athlete Brings Home the Gold
• Tatyana McFadden Wins Second Paralympic Gold

Photo courtesy of Team USA via Flickr.