One of the most promising young athletes in wheelchair racing, it’s hard to believe Madison de Rozario is only 18 years old.

Aged just 14, Madison was the youngest athlete in the 2008 Australian Paralympic Team, but rather than letting the occasion overwhelm her, she made the final of the 100m before shining as part of the 4x100m relay team that won a silver medal.

Madison has transverse myelitis, a neurological disease which inflames the spinal cord resulting in her using a wheelchair. After taking up wheelchair sport in 2006, Madison has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the sport of athletics and was named the Junior Athletics Rookie of the Year in 2007 and the Junior Sports Star of the Year in 2008 which she says is one of the greatest honours ever bestowed upon her.

At the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships, after just a few weeks recovery from illness, Madison finished fifth in the 100m, 200m and 400m and broke the Australian record in the 200m. At the Australian Athletics Championships a few months later, Madison had improved her form, winning the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m as well as collecting silver in the 1500m. Continuing her impressive form, Madison travelled with the Australian wheelchair track and road team to the 2011 Swiss Nationals, where she collected two silvers (400m, 800m) and two bronze (100m, 200m).

The West Australian trains under wheelchair racing great Louise Sauvage and admires both Louise and Kurt Fearnley for their dedication and hard work. She also looks to her father Roy and her former coach, the late great Frank Ponta, as heroes who inspire her dreams of Paralympic gold.

Madison believes that those who reach can touch the stars and hates nothing more than knowing she could have done better.  She likes to devote some of her spare time to one of her favourite hobbies – sketching – and her personal goals are to balance full time education and a sporting career.