She’s a four time Paralympian with two gold medals, three silver and a bronze to her name.
First Australian athlete to win four gold medals in any para sport at the Commonwealth Games.
First Australian women to win the New York Marathon.
Ten World Para Athletics Championships medals.
Madison de Rozario is widely regarded as one of Australia’s greatest athletes. She’s also one of the original Minerva Athletes, joining soon after Minerva was established following the Rio Games.
As she prepares to jet off to the Tokyo Marathon event where she took the bronze last year, we caught up with Madi and her Minerva Mentor and Minerva Co-Founder Sam Mostyn.
Madi began wheelchair racing in 2006 at the age of 12. Just two years later she became one of the youngest athletes representing Australia at the highest level of international sport. Madi was just 14 when she won her first Paralympics medal – silver – as part of the Women’s T53/544x100m relay in Beijing.
Like many elite athletes, Madi faced injury battles along the way which made it difficult to train and compete.
Wheelchair racers endure some of the most gruelling physical demands of any athletic activity, reaching speeds of up to 32-33 km / hour in competition. Their high-tech racing chairs are maximised for weight and aerodynamics, so there is no gearing on the wheels. All the power has to come from the athletes’ muscles and mental determination.
An injury-forced break from racing in 2014 saw her not only recover from physical injuries, but also reevaluate her mindset.
“I struggle to be competitive, and up to that point, I had been trying to shape myself into the sort of athlete I thought I had to be – fiery, aggressive, win-at-all-costs. But instead of changing who I was, I changed how I interacted with the sport. It made all the difference in the world.”
Nothing could hold her back when she returned to the track. Madi won her first world title in 2015, launching a streak of nine World Championship medals in six years. Two Paralympic silver medals at the Rio 2016 Games and two gold medals and a bronze at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021 were added to her extraordinary accomplishments.
Madi’s record in major world marathon races is equally impressive. She’s a two time London Marathon winner, including setting the course record in 2023 less thana week after securing silver in the Boston Marathon. And her groundbreaking New York Marathon win in 2021 is an Australian first.
She also made her debut at the Sydney Marathon in 2023, winning the event in a world class field, with her Minerva Mentor Sam Mostyn on the roadside to cheer her on and celebrate with her at the finish line.
With her sights set on her fifth Paralympics in 2024 in Paris, Madi is working closely with some of the best in the business to help her get there.
Her coach and Minerva Legend Louise Sauvage is herself one of the greatest athletes Australia has ever produced. Louise is a nine-time Paralympic gold medallist and winner of four silver medals across four Paralympic Games: Barcelona (1992), Atlanta(1996), Sydney (2000), and Athens (2004). She had the honour of lighting the Paralympic cauldron in Sydney, was the first Paralympian inducted as a member of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2007 and the first Paralympian to be elevated to Hall of Fame Legend status in 2019.
Also encouraging Madi in her ambitions for Paris and beyond is her mentor Sam Mostyn AO.
The pair were introduced through the Minerva Mentoring Program in 2020.
An influential changemaker, Sam is one of Australia’s leading businesswomen and a sustainability adviser with a long history of executive governance roles across business, sport, climate change, the arts, policy and not for profit. She Chaired the Australian Government’s Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce and currently serves as Chair of many high profile organisations including Aware Super, Ausfilm, ANROWS and the Foundation for Young Australians. She serves on the boards of Mirvac and the Climate Change Authority while her previous board roles include Virgin Australia, Citibank Australia, Diversity Council Australia and Transurban amongst many others.
In 2005 Sam was the first woman to be appointed to the AFL Commission where she was an advocate for the inclusion of women at all levels of the game for more than 11 years, and a strong voice for the creation of the AFLW. She has continued to champion the role of women in sport, co-founding the Minerva Network.
Together Madi and Sam form a powerhouse partnership.
With her mentor supporting her, Madi says she’s determined to use the platform that comes with sporting success to influence change well beyond sport.
“When you reach a certain level as an athlete, you quickly find out that you have a platform to be heard, and that we can use this platform to encourage young girls and boys coming through and to truly make a difference in society,” Madi said.
“But no one teaches you how to do that, how to conduct yourself and to make sure you have a positive influence. That is what the Minerva Network has done for me and for many of the girls I speak to. It has helped us become better balanced in our approach to our sports and to life. It has been invaluable.
“As an athlete, you're so one track. If you put 42 kilometres of road in front of me, I would be able to do that without too much thought.
“But there's so much more that really comes within that for athletes. And it comes with a platform that you're kind of given before you necessarily deserve to have that. So having someone like Sam and what the Minerva Network is able to provide helps us to become people who are truly deserving of that platform.”
Sam says she gets as much, if not more, from her supporting Madi to achieve her goals both in and out of the sporting arena.
“I am so lucky to have Madison as the Minerva athlete I get to work with and mentor, but it's a mutual mentoring arrangement. I feel as mentored by Madi as anything I can ever offer.
“She constantly shows me what it means to be disciplined, what it means to actually set up your life, to pursue the thing that drives everything about you, and to go and win.
“As a Minerva mentor, part of what we're always doing is thinking about what's going to work for someone whose whole life has been about setting goals, meeting goals, training. And how do you take that and help shape a bit of that to be about a life within the sport, but also beyond sport as a woman, as a fully evolved woman with your own agency.”
Madi is a role model for boys and girls across Australia in sport and beyond.
“I am so proud to be a Paralympian and I know what this sport has given me. The impact that individuals, including my amazing coach Louise, have had throughout the history of the Paralympics is humbling.
“I’m so proud, not only of what we’ve done as athletes, but how we’ve shifted the idea of what sport can be in Australia and the identities of what people with disabilities can be in Australia as well.
“Because of the powerhouse that Australia is on the Paralympic landscape, the impact that has globally, as well, is impressive.
“To be able to play a small part in that — I'm incredibly proud of that.”
It comes as no surprise that the federal government appointed Madi to its expert panel of four sportswomen to help design the $200 million Play our Way funding for women’s sport, announced following the Matildas’ record breaking FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 achievements.
Together with Minerva Legend Liz Ellis, basketball GOAT Lauren Jackson, and Matilda and Olympian Tal Karp, Madi is pleased to be able to draw on her lived experiences to help shape the funding to have the greatest impact where it’s needed most.
Yet it’s telling that Madi credits one of her most valued accomplishments as Mattel designing a Barbie in her honour in 2020, complete with a racing wheelchair, gloves, and her signature platinum blonde hair.
“The fact that Barbie chose a woman with a disability to embody sport in Australia speaks absolute volumes to the direction we’re moving in as a society. The demand is there to recognise every person from every corner of our community and I’m 100 percent here to support that.”
Madi is one of over 700 Australian women athletes who participate in the Minerva Network as we seek to develop our professional woman athletes on and off the field.
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