Ya Sama! Moments from My Life

There are very few athletes in history who have achieved so much under such unique circumstances. Born with spina bifida, Tatyana McFadden spent the first six years of her life in a Russian orphanage with virtually nothing, not even a wheelchair. Paralyzed from the waist down, and with no other way to move, she learned to scoot and walk on her hands simply to keep up with the other children.

Little did she know that the powerful arms and hands she began to develop as a small child would someday carry her around the globe as one of the world's greatest athletes. In 1994, she was adopted and brought to the United States. Adjusting to her new home was not easy.

Her lack of nutrition and proper healthcare in the orphanage made her weak and sickly. Her parents enrolled her in various sports groups in hopes that it would build her strength. A decade later, she won her first silver and bronze medals in the Athens Paralympics.

Now at the age of 27, Tatyana is one of the foremost athletes in the world having won numerous gold, silver and bronze medals in the Paralympics, as well as having won first place in the women's wheelchair race division of the Boston, Chicago, London, and New York City marathons in 2013, 2014, and 2015.