Making an Inspiring Return to a Russian Orphanage
Tatyana McFadden
In 1993, Deborah McFadden was in St. Petersburg on U.S. government business as commissioner for disabilities. On a visit to an orphanage, she met Tatyana, a 6-year-old who’d been born with spina bifida.
“I had no intention of adopting, let alone a 6-year-old paralyzed child, but Tatyana and I had a connection that was nothing short of magical and miraculous,” Deborah recalls. “I couldn’t get her off my mind.” So began a relationship that would take Tatyana to the United States as Deborah’s adopted daughter. She would grow up to become one of the world’s top wheelchair athletes.
In an emotional return to the orphanage in April, Tatyana McFadden astonished those who’d said good-bye to a sickly child who’d walked on her hands because there was no money for a wheelchair. The 22-year-old woman who returned is a University of Illinois student-athlete with muscles to die for, drives a car, has an able-bodied boyfriend, travels the world on her own, and is pictured on 150 million McDonald’s cups and 10,000 BP gas station posters.
Tatyana’s engagement with the children moved onlookers to tears. “She picked up every child and cuddled them,” says Deborah. “The staff had never seen anything like this. [They] were speechless.”
The ING New York City Marathon defending champion, Tatyana has six Paralympic medals (four silver, two bronze), and she won four gold medals and a bronze at the IPC World Championships in New Zealand in January. She wants to win five gold medals at the 2012 London Paralympics.
Tatyana gave her New York champion’s medal to the orphanage. “They gave me so much, I wanted to give back,” she says.
Tatyana was instrumental in getting a law passed in Maryland requiring public schools to provide opportunities for disabled students to participate in sports. She has addressed President Obama’s senior staff at the White House on the importance of equal access.
She has a Russian mantra: “Ya sama.” It means “I can do it myself.”
