Madison Champion lives and trains at the US Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. She grew up in Texas, where she got into competitive shooting through Junior ROTC in high school. She says she tried out to avoid taking gym class, and she has ended up loving it.
“I’ve learned so much about myself just from doing this sport. I’ve learned things that I might not have ever learned in my life about myself,” Champion said. “Because I’ve never been pushed to think about a way to get through it before.”
Champion broke five national records in 2019, won multiple medals at the USA Shooting National Championships, and earned Team USA a spot in the Paris Paralympics. She was a member of the 2023 USA Parapan Team in Santiago, Chile, where she placed 5th and 6th, shooting from both standing and prone positions.
Despite those successes, she does not expect to compete in Paris: she qualified as an alternate, because of technicalities in the rules for qualification.
“It is just a really hard pill to swallow when you put so much time and effort towards something and you don't get to do it. I've missed funerals, I've missed births of family members, I've missed birthdays — the whole nine yards,” Champion said in a video on social media in July.
But Champion said she is rooting for her teammates in Paris, and already looking ahead to 2028 in Los Angeles.
“I feel like it is making me a stronger person and a better athlete so that I can go and compete later on,” she said.
