The Fall 2020 issue of Sports Illustrated featured Ukrainian Daniel Romanchuk in its Scorecard’s Faces in the Crowd section. The 22-year-old Paralympian, who has spina bifida, was acknowledged for setting an unofficial world record for a wheelchair racer with his time of 1:13:57 seconds, covering 26.2 miles at the virtual New York City Marathon in October 2020. This achievement came on the heels of his becoming the youngest winner of the Boston Marathon’s wheelchair division in 2019, which he followed up with additional victories in London, Chicago and New York.
Romanchuk was using the virtual race as a training run, but unexpectedly went off on a record pace on a straight, flat surface. The official world record was 1:20:14 seconds, set by Swiss Heinz Frei in 1999.