Paralympics 2024: Aussie flag bearer Madison de Rozario opens up how close she came to leaving Paris after secret personal tragedy

Madison de Rozario has revealed she considered returning to Australia and giving up her Paralympic campaign after receiving news of her father’s death shortly after carrying the flag at the opening ceremony.

De Rozario won silver in the T54 marathon on Sunday, after taking bronze in the 5000 meters earlier at the Games.

The 30-year-old was defeated in the marathon by Catherine Debrunner. The Swiss won her fifth gold medal in Paris, in addition to the silver she won in the 100 meters.

De Rozario finished 4 minutes and 23 seconds behind the Swiss, but explained after the race that the run-up to the defence of her marathon title had been disrupted by the news of the death of her father Roy.

The wheelchair racer was one of the Australian team’s flag bearers at the opening ceremony, but only learned of her father’s death several hours later.

“When you first hear news like this, there is the possibility of going home and it feels like the right thing to do,” said de Rozario.

‘I feel so lucky that when I had that thought, the first thing my family said to me was, ‘don’t come home.’ There was a very clear instruction to do this.

‘It turns out I’d rather be in a Paralympic village with 160 of my best friends.

She revealed after the race that her father passed away just hours after the opening ceremony on August 28

“I think I just wanted to be with that group of people who had no idea what kind of week I was going through.”

De Rozario was informed by her mother shortly after leading the Australian team down the Champs Elysses.

Coach Louise Sauvage was generally able to keep the rider focused on her task, except perhaps in the moments before her 5000m heats.

“Lou and I always hug before a race,” de Rozario said. “I just burst into tears with Louise.

“Our poor mechanic said something like, ‘She’s not normally this stressed, it’s just the damn heat; why is she so worked up about this?’”

According to De Rozario, her father’s character traits had a great influence on her maturity as an athlete.

“I am like many young women who have a complicated relationship with their fathers,” said de Rozario.

“But I think that as the person that I am, I owe a lot to him. We were homeschooled for years and he homeschooled us.

“I think as I get older, some of the aspects that I’m really proud of are because of him.”

The silver medal Rozario took on Sunday was her eighth Paralympic medal, but she was the first to admit it will be an uphill battle to rein in the dominant Debrunner.

Madison De Rozario received the devastating news hours after leading the Australian team into the Paralympic Games opening ceremony

After winning the marathon title, the Swiss left Paris with five gold medals, having also won the 400m, 800m, 1500m and 5000m.

“One of the nice things about sports is that there is no limit,” said de Rozario.

‘I could go to Tokyo and win the 800 meters and the marathon with a world record.

‘Three years later my world record was improved by nine seconds.

‘The fact that we haven’t even come close to winning the gold medal in the marathon shows that our sport is developing enormously.’