Aussie flagbearer Madison de Rozario learns of father’s death at the Paralympics

Madison de Rozario has revealed she considered returning to Australia and abandoning her Paralympic campaign after receiving news in the hours after she was a flagbearer in opening ceremony that her father had died.

De Rozario won silver in the T54 marathon on Sunday, adding to a bronze she picked up in the 5000m earlier at the Games.

The 30-year-old was beaten by Catherine Debrunner in the marathon race, the Swiss sealing a fifth gold medal in Paris to go with a silver she claimed in the 100m.

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De Rozario finished four minutes and 23 seconds behind Debrunner but the Australian explained post-race that the build-up to the marathon, which she won in Tokyo, had been hit by the news of her father Roy’s death.

The wheelchair racer was a flagbearer for the Australian team at the opening ceremony last week and learned just hours later that her father had died.

De Rozario was informed by her mother, who is in Paris, soon after leading her teammates down the Champs Elysses.

“When you first get news like that the option is there to go home and it feels like the correct thing to do,” de Rozario said.

“I feel so lucky that as I was having that thought, the first thing my family said to me was, ‘don’t come home’. There was a very clear instruction to get this done.

“Turns out, I’d rather be in a Paralympic village with 160 of my best friends. I think, for a bunch of people who had no idea the week that I was having, they were the people I wanted to be around.”