Tokyo Paralympics: Madison de Rozario’s mother shocked at nature of her daughter’s gold medal victory

Madison de Rozario’s mother says she could not believe the ease with which her daughter blew away the rest of the field to end a 13-year wait for a Paralympic gold medal.

The Willetton Senior High School graduate became WA’s second Paralympic gold medallist at the Tokyo games, following on from former Telethon kid Ben Popham’s triumph, when she took out the T53 800m on Sunday night.

At her fourth Paralympics, de Rozario ended her long wait for a gold medal with a Paralympic record-setting time of 1:45.99, just 0.46 seconds short of the world record she previously set in 2019.

The 27 year-old, who was recognised with her own Barbie doll last year, left the chasing pack trailing in her wake as she steamed to her first gold medal.

Watching the race from home, de Rozario’s mother Linda could not believe what was unfolding on the television screen and had to do a double-take.

“I was like, ‘are we for real here?’” she told The West Australian.

“This did not feel like a Paralympic race; it felt like a national race, not a world race. I was waiting for them to catch her and it just didn’t happen.

“She was not going to get boxed in, she was going to make this her race and she did.”

de Rozario said her daughter had executed her race plan in the final perfectly and it was the perfect way to rebound from her fifth-placed finish in the 5000m

“The 800m is her pet race. After the 5000m, she was doubting herself, but she delivered,” she said.

“As a mother, you just want the best for your children. It was a beautiful race, she did it perfectly, she nailed it.”

De Rozario hails from a tight-knit family and while they were unable to travel with her, her extended family sent her videos of themselves watching the race.

It was only the second time de Rozario’s mother has been unable to travel with her daughter to watch her compete at the four Paralympics she has been selected for – the first happened to be her inaugural games, when the family were in the process of building a house.

De Rozario has spent the last Paralympic cycle living in New South Wales to be closer to her coach, nine-time Paralympic gold medallist Louise Sauvage.

While it has paid off in the form of Paralympic gold, it has resulted in significant time away from the rest of the family, a situation exacerbated by the pandemic.

“We used to see each other quite a lot before Covid, I would fly over twice a year and she would fly here twice a year and our sisters would fly over once or twice,” de Rozario’s mother said.

“I have seen her once in the last two years. We zoom call a lot, meal prepping and reading books together. We make it work.”

Coming from a sporty family, de Rozario tried an array of sports as a child after contracting transverse myelitis, a neurological disorder which causes inflammation of the spinal cord, at age four.

Eventually enticed into wheelchair racing by Paralympic legend Frank Ponta, de Rozario’s family would cycle along the foreshore from Burswood to South Perth with her riding alongside to help her train.

De Rozario is set to race in the T54 1500m on Monday night, before backing up for the T54 marathon on the last day of the Games.

She had previously won silver in the 800m and 4x400m relay at Rio and the 4x100 relay in Beijing.