Daniel Romanchuk was born with spina bifida, a birth defect that impacts the formation of the spinal cord. But this never stopped him from pursuing his interest in sports.
Earlier this month, Romanchuk won the 2024 New York City men’s wheelchair marathon. This year’s marathon drew roughly 50,000 racers from 148 countries, according to organizers.
This is Romanchuk’s third victory in this event. In 2018, he became the first American man to win the men’s New York City Marathon wheelchair race. He won again in 2019. This year, he secured his win with a time of one hour 36 minutes.
Romanchuk’s sports journey started when he was 2 years old. He joined Bennett Blazers, an adaptive and multi-sport program for physically challenged children in Baltimore, Maryland. He swam at age three, he said, and took on wheelchair racing and basketball at age four. He also played sled hockey and numerous other sports when he was young.
Romanchuk said he was first drawn to wheelchair racing for its simplicity: “Get from point A to point B as fast as you can. I also enjoyed just pushing myself and seeing: How far can I go? And how fast can I go?”
Romanchuk ended up moving to Champaign, Illinois, to focus on training at the University of Illinois.
“Back in the fall of 2014, my mom asked me if I wanted to try and make the Rio Paralympic Games for track,” he said. “And after giving it some thought, I said, you know what? I want to try and go for it.”
He reached out to Adam Bleakney, the head coach of the U of I Wheelchair Track and Road Racing team. Romanchuk said initially he traveled back and forth between Maryland and Illinois until eventually deciding to relocate to Champaign-Urbana.
To prepare for races, Romanchuk and his teammates follow a rigorous training schedule.
“We all train six days a week, one to two times a day,” he said. “And each session is maybe an hour to an hour and a half long.”
During spring and fall, they train outdoors, getting lots of miles in to prepare for upcoming marathons. Summer is track season, he said, so training includes more variations in speed with decreased mileage.
During the winter season the athletes focus their training indoors.
“We’re on rollers, which are basically our version of a treadmill,” Romanchuk said. “You can kind of think of the back wheels of the racing chair are kind of over a shrunken 55-gallon drum, and the rest of the chair is strapped down so it’s not gonna go anywhere.”
In September 2024, Romanchuk competed with the U.S.A. men’s Paralympics team in Paris, bringing home a gold medal in the men’s 5000-meter race and a bronze in men’s 400-meter race, both in the T54 wheelchair category.
Romanchuk said his parents have been instrumental in getting him to where he is today. His mother, Kim Romanchuk, studied medicine and knew about spina bifida and how to help him handle various aspects of the condition.
“She took the drives with me back and forth in the early days of coming out here to Illinois… she’s been around the world with me,” he said. “I just wouldn’t be here without her.”