Racing Forward: Paralympic Wheelchair Racer Tatyana McFadden on Living with Blood Clots

Racing Forward: Paralympic Wheelchair Racer Tatyana McFadden on Living with Blood Clots

10/13/2026

"You can still move forward." 20-time Paralympic medalist Tatyana McFadden reflects on living with blood clots, returning to elite competition and how individualized care from her @HopkinsMedicine team helps her continue pursuing her goals. ›

When Tatyana McFadden first noticed something felt wrong, she assumed it was exhaustion. At 18, she was traveling internationally and preparing for the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games when she began feeling unusually fatigued.

"I just felt really tired, really heavy," McFadden recalls. "During a race, I felt like I had no oxygen."

Days after returning home, her symptoms worsened. She noticed her feet had changed color, which was especially concerning given her limited sensation from spina bifida. She sought urgent care, and was diagnosed with a blood clot.

The diagnosis began a nearly two-decade journey with venous thromboembolism (VTE) that eventually brought McFadden to The Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she established ongoing care with hematologist Michael Streiff, M.D., helping shape treatment as her athletic career evolved.

Between her first diagnosis and the recurrence years later, McFadden's career continued to soar. She captured multiple Paralympic medals and major marathon titles, including victories in Boston, New York, Chicago and London, solidifying her place among the most accomplished wheelchair racers in the world.

Nearly a decade later, she faced a severe recurrence while training for the Tokyo Paralympics, requiring months of treatment and recovery.

"The clots were from my feet all the way up to my abdomen," McFadden says. "I had to completely start over."

Her care team stabilized the clots, adjusted medications and developed a plan for a safe return to competition. Doctors later diagnosed McFadden with May-Thurner syndrome, an underlying condition that increases clot risk and helped explain the recurrence.

For Streiff, McFadden's case underscores a core principle of VTE care: Treatment must reflect the realities of a patient's life.

"You can't take a cookie-cutter approach," he says. "Every patient is different, and treatment has to be individualized based on their risks and what's happening in their lives."

For McFadden, that approach has meant balancing clot prevention with the demands of elite wheelchair racing, a strategy that continues today with long-term anticoagulation and medication adjustments around competitions to manage clot and bleeding risk.

"It was about finding the right plan so I could stay healthy and still do what I love," she says. "But I had to change everything: how I trained, how I recovered and how I thought about my career. Mentally, that was the hardest part."

Despite the setback, McFadden returned to international competition, continuing to add to her medal count, a testament to both her resilience and coordinated medical care.

In 2023, McFadden returned to Baltimore for the annual Johns Hopkins Venous Thromboembolism Symposium, where she surprised Streiff with one of her Paralympic medals in recognition of his role in her care.

"He was a really big part of making my journey possible," she says. "It was important for me to honor that."

For Streiff, the gesture underscored the collaborative nature of long-term care.

"I was overwhelmed," he says. "It was completely unexpected, and very kind of her. It really speaks to the relationship you build when you care for someone over many years."

Today, McFadden continues to train and compete while advocating for greater awareness of blood clots.

"Blood clots are far more common than people think," Streiff says. "In the U.S., tens of thousands of people die from pulmonary embolism each year, yet public awareness is still much lower than it is for heart attack or stroke."

McFadden encourages others facing a similar diagnosis to follow their care plan and seek support.

"Listen to your doctor, and stick to the plan," she says. "It's going to be hard, but it will get better."

McFadden's journey highlights how specialized care, strong patient-clinician relationships and determination can help people continue pursuing their goals after a serious diagnosis.

"Blood clots can happen to anyone," she says. "But they can be treated, and you can still move forward."