Wins New York City Marathon on 3 November 2013 to complete Boston, London, Chicago, New York Grand Slam in one year.
On 3 November 2013, Tatyana McFadden won the New York City Marathon wheelchair division, completing victories in Boston, London, Chicago, and New York in the same calendar year.[3][9] This triumph made her the first athlete of any gender or disability status to win the World Marathon Majors Grand Slam—all four major marathons held that year—in a single season.[9][15]
The feat was historically groundbreaking in both Paralympic and mainstream running communities. McFadden’s Grand Slam required mastering varied course profiles, weather conditions, and competitive fields over months of racing, from Boston’s hills to London’s fast streets, Chicago’s flat layout, and New York’s bridges and rolling terrain.[3] Her success demonstrated that a female wheelchair racer could set the global standard for marathon consistency.
For women’s sports history, the Grand Slam challenged lingering hierarchies that placed able-bodied marathon achievements at the top of prestige ladders.[9][12] McFadden’s wins forced race organizers, sponsors, and media to reckon with wheelchair divisions as elite competitions deserving of equal recognition. The accomplishment also advanced public understanding of disabled women as high-performance endurance athletes, helping to normalize their presence on the iconic podiums of major city marathons and inspiring greater participation by women with disabilities in distance racing worldwide.