Chicago Marathon win and course record 1:42:35

On 12 October 2014, Tatyana McFadden won the Chicago Marathon wheelchair division and set a new course record of 1:42:35.[3] Racing through Chicago’s famously flat and fast streets, she pushed the pace to a level that broke the existing benchmark for women’s wheelchair racers on the course.

This performance strengthened McFadden’s reputation as the dominant women’s marathoner of her era, coming amid consecutive Grand Slam seasons in which she routinely topped podiums in Boston, London, Chicago, and New York.[15] The course record underscored not only her tactical savvy and physical conditioning but also improvements in racing chair technology and training science available to elite female wheelchair athletes.

Chicago’s record added to the historical narrative of women’s increasing speed and competitiveness in wheelchair road racing.[12] For organizers and spectators, McFadden’s time offered a new standard against which future generations of racers would measure themselves. It also contributed to the argument that women’s wheelchair divisions deserved greater parity in media coverage, prize structures, and sponsorship recognition, as their performances were reaching historically significant levels of excellence.[9][4]