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.
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."
