Madison de Rozario has revealed she considered returning to Australia and abandoning her Paralympic campaign after receiving news in the hours after she was a flagbearer in opening ceremony that her father had died.
De Rozario won silver in the T54 marathon on Sunday, adding to a bronze she picked up in the 5000m earlier at the Games.
The 30-year-old was beaten by Catherine Debrunner in the marathon race, the Swiss sealing a fifth gold medal in Paris to go with a silver she claimed in the 100m.
De Rozario finished 4 minutes, 23 seconds behind the Swiss but explained post race that the build-up to the defence of her marathon crown had been hit by the news of her father Roy’s death.
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The wheelchair racer was a flagbearer for the Australian team at the opening ceremony but was informed in the hours following that her father had died.
“When you first get news like that the option is there to go home and it feels like the correct thing to do,” de Rozario said.
“I feel so lucky that as I was having that thought, the first thing my family said to me was, ‘don’t come home’. There was a very clear instruction to get this done.
“Turns out, I’d rather be in a Paralympic village with 160 of my best friends. I think, for a bunch of people who had no idea the week that I was having, they were the people I wanted to be around.”
De Rozario was informed by her mother soon after leading the Australian team down the Champs Elysses.
For the most part, coach Louise Sauvage was able to keep the racer focused on the task at hand, except perhaps in the moments before her heats for the 5000m event.
“Lou and I always hug before I race,” de Rozario said. “I just burst into tears on Louise.
“Our poor mechanic was like, ‘She’s not normally this stressed, it’s just a f***ing heat; why is she so worried about this?’”
De Rozario said her father’s character traits had a major influence on her maturity as an athlete.
“I’m like a lot of young women, where we have complicated relationships with our dad,” de Rozario said. “But I think the person that I am, I do credit a lot to him. We were homeschooled for a lot of years and he homeschooled us.
“I think as I’ve gotten older some of the parts I’m really proud of are a credit to him.”
The silver de Rozario clinched on Sunday was her eighth Paralympic medal but she was the first to admit she faces an uphill battle to reel in the dominant force of Debrunner.
After winning the marathon title, the Swiss leaves Paris with five gold medals after also taking the 400m, 800m, 1500m and 5000m.
“One of the cool things about sport is there’s no real ceiling on it,” de Rozario said.
“I could go into Tokyo and win the 800m and the marathon in a world record.
“Three years later, my world record has been broken by nine seconds.
“To not even be within sight of the gold medal in the marathon (shows) our sport is evolving so much.”
How Australia fared on Day 10
SILVER
Madison de Rozario (athletics, T54 marathon) – Unable to catch the dominant force that is Switzerland’s Catherine Debrunner and retain her crowd, de Rozario finished second, capturing her eighth Paralympic medal and claiming the only Australian medal on the final day of action.
HITS FROM PARIS
Lauren Parker – Parker buried the pain of missing triathlon gold in Tokyo and became the first Australian to win golds in multiple sports in 48 years.
Alexa Leary – Leary’s comeback from a near-fatal bike crash three years ago was capped by a dominant performance in the pool as her family fought back tears.
James Turner – After being whacked by a nasty bout of glandular fever in May, Turner responded with two impressive gold medal wins, in the T36 100m and 400m.
Eye towards Brisbane 2032 – The emerging members of Australia’s track and field may have collected few medals but they made an impression with an eye on the future. Rhiannon Clarke, Telaya Blacksmith and Annabelle Colman all look like strong medal chances in the coming years.
MISSES FROM PARIS
Medal table – In medals won, this was Australia’s worst Paralympic performance since the 1980 Games in Arnhem, when 12 gold, 21 silver and 22 bronze medals were collected. In the final table, the ninth-placed finish was the lowest Australia have come since the Seoul Games in 1988, when they ranked 12th.
Parisian infrastructure – Good luck if you went to the French capital and relied on a wheelchair to get around. Most metro stations still don’t have lifts. Roadblocks around venues meant that if you wanted to get a taxi, or rideshare home from a venue, you had to make your way to a pick-up point.
Stadium dramas – If Brisbane’s organisers want to take any advice from Paris it would be to build the Games with the Paralympics in mind first. Athletes complained of tight corridors, limited warm-up spaces and minimal lift capacity at venues.
FINAL MEDAL TABLE
1. China – Gold: 94, Silver: 76, Bronze 50. Total: 220.
2. Great Britain – Gold: 49, Silver: 44, Bronze 31. Total: 124.
3. USA – Gold: 36, Silver: 42, Bronze 27. Total: 105.
4. Netherlands – Gold: 27, Silver: 17, Bronze 12. Total: 56.
**
9. Australia – Gold: 18, Silver: 17, Bronze 28. Total: 63.
WHERE DID AUSTRALIA’S MEDALS COME FROM?
SWIMMING – Gold: 6, Silver: 8, Bronze 13.
CYCLING – Gold: 4, Silver: 4, Bronze 3.
ATHLETICS – Gold: 3, Silver: 2, Bronze 6.
TABLE TENNIS – Gold: 2, Bronze 3.
PARACANOEING – Gold: 1, Silver: 1, Bronze 1.
ROWING – Gold: 1, Bronze 1.
TRIATHLON – Gold: 1.
BOCCIA – Silver: 2.
WHEELCHAIR RUGBY – Bronze 1.
TOTAL: 63
© AAP