The first time was about the experience. This time it's all business.

Four years after collecting a silver and bronze medal at the Paralympics in Athens, Clarksville resident Tatyana McFadden is once again packing her bags as a member of the United States' team. Only this time the 19-year-old is headed to Beijing, and there's one thing on her mind -- a gold medal.

"The first time I was only 15, it was my first international race, I didn't really know the competition and the things that would go on. Everything was kind of overwhelming," McFadden said. "I feel like I'm far better prepared now. I've raced against these athletes and I think, naturally, my expectations are higher."

McFadden will have plenty of chances at gold at this year's Paralympics, which kick off with the opening ceremonies Sept. 6. She has qualified to participate in the 100-, 200-, 400-, and 800-meter track events, in addition to competing as a member of the 4x100-meter relay team.

The 100, the event in which she won silver in 2004 and also held the world record earlier this year, is her strong suit but, according to McFadden and her coaches, there is the chance for success across the board.

"She's such a competitor that I wouldn't put anything past her," said McFadden's coach, Peter Eriksson, who worked with her in Canada earlier this summer. "All four events, depending on how fast or slow things go from the start, I can see her winning."

The Paralympics will bookend what has already been an extremely busy summer for McFadden. She competed in the Junior Worlds in addition to her trip to Canada and also participated in her first-ever 10k road race in New York, where she finished third.

"It was part of my training for Beijing, building up my endurance. But I really enjoyed it. It was a new challenge for me," she said.

To go along with the racing, McFadden, who graduated from Atholton High School in May, has had more than a few memorable experiences during the past couple months. Back in April, her testimony in front of the General Assembly helped Maryland become the first state to pass a sports equity law for students with disabilities. On July 21, she took a trip to the Governor's Mansion to help celebrate the passage of the bill.

Earlier that same day, she was one of the handful of athletes heading to Beijing who were selected to be honored by the president at the White House.

And on top of all that, in what has been arguably the biggest honor of all, McFadden was selected as one of nine athletes to be featured on 100 million 16- and 21-ounce McDonald's cups in restaurants across the country. McDonald's now joins Hilton Hotels, Princeton Sports and Eagle Sportschairs as McFadden's main sponsors.

"There's been some pretty unbelievable things, but being on a McDonald's cup and knowing that only the best of the best get that honor, is definitely near the top of the list," she said. "It's one of those things that lets you know you've really made it."

To get to this point, McFadden has had her obstacles. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia with spina bifida, she had surgery as an infant before being sent to an orphanage for the first six years of her life. It was there that Deborah McFadden, a commissioner for disabilities in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, met and then decided to adopt Tatyana.

In the early years once arriving in the U.S., Tatyana began swimming and later started getting into basketball, track and ice sledge hockey. The constant activity helped her build strength and confidence, something that has proved pivotal in recent years as she has become one of the world's elite wheelchair sprinters.

"When I first adopted her she was anemic and it wasn't completely clear whether she'd live but two years," Deborah said. "So to go from that, to now having her representing the United States as one of the top sprinters is amazing. She's worked and fought so hard."

Even now, as she travels around the country and the world, there are hurdles to overcome. Just last fall, when traveling to Japan, she suffered a blood clot while flying.

"I have really small arteries, which means traveling and sitting for too long can create problems," Tatyana said. "That trip we were actually flying for more time than we actually were there on the ground."

McFadden's trip to Beijing will be her final international journey before heading to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne for her first semester of college in September. She will be on an athletic scholarship and will be afforded the opportunity to focus even more on fine tuning her athletic strengths and developing new ones.

Eriksson, who also works with McFadden's top competitor and world-renowned sprinter, Chantal Petitclerc, says that training year round as part of a collegiate team could push McFadden to an entirely different level and also allow her to eventually expand her events to include the 5,000 for future Paralympics.

"People don't realize it because she's already competing at such a high level, but she's just scratching the surface of her potential," Eriksson said. "I don't even know if she understands how good she can be. To be her age and to be at the point she is, it's something we may never see again."

"If she keeps working like she is, she very well could be the best the sport has ever seen."

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