Paraplegic Rower Attempts Record

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Published in New York Able Newspaper – January 2009

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Angela Madsen, a paraplegic woman who rowed across the Atlantic Ocean, will be part of an eight-person crew in the spring in an attempt to break a speed record while rowing across the Indian Ocean.

She will be the first paraplegic individual and the first woman with a disability to ever row across the Indian Ocean. She will also be the first paraplegic and first woman with a disability to have rowed across two oceans.

She captured the title for first paraplegic and woman with a disability to row across the Atlantic in the 2007 race, completing the row in 66 days, 23 hours and 24 minutes. Presently there are only two individuals who have completed an entire crossing of the Indian Ocean. Anders Svedlund did it in 64 in 1971, and Simon Chalk did it in 107 days in 2003.

The event, set for April, starts in Geraldton, Western Australia. Madsen will be the only disabled member of the crew. Madsen became paralyzed during back surgery in 1993, when the surgeon accidentally pierced her spinal cord.

“One doctor told me my physical condition was a waste of human life,” said Madsen. “I decided to prove him, and everyone who thinks like him, wrong by making my life anything but a waste.”

Since the spinal cord injury, Madsen has undergone a double mastectomy for breast cancer and more surgery for carpal tunnel and ulnar nerve problems. She has also been diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, but medication has kept it under control.

She has since gone on to compete in the National Veterns Wheelchair Games, wheelchair basketball leagues, the Women’s World Championships of Longboard surfing and become an expert rower. She is the founder of California Adaptive Rowing Programs and has been a member of the U.S. National Adaptive Rowing Team, rowing in the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, China.