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TCS NYC MARATHON

November 3, 2019

New York, New York

THE MODERATOR: We're getting ready to start our post race press conferences. Two very familiar faces on the stage this morning. On the women's side with a time of 1:44:20, winning by an astonishing 3:58, from Switzerland, Manuela Schar.

And on the men's side, a very fascinating race, a very close race, but no surprise that Daniel Romanchuk broke the tape in 1:37:24 for his second consecutive TCS New York City Marathon win.

Manuela, I want to begin with you, a massive margin of victory, 3:58. Is it still fun to win by that much?

MANUELA SCHAR: It is a lot of fun. No, it's been incredible the last 12 months, and it's still going on. It's just -- I don't know. I'm speechless.

THE MODERATOR: You were on course record race for a large portion of the race. Was that in your head at all, and were you going for the course record?

MANUELA SCHAR: I'm always trying to pull away and go for a fast time. Course record wasn't on my mind until maybe 30K, and then I realized it was possible. But then I just had like a difficult time, and I had to slow down a lot for a while. Then I knew it would be close, but it would be difficult to reach it.

THE MODERATOR: Did you expect to be that far ahead the entire time, or did you expect stiffer competition?

MANUELA SCHAR: We just don't have any information on the course. I had no idea if they're just behind me or if they're minutes away or if they're getting closer or if I'm going away. It's difficult. It's difficult. We don't know.

THE MODERATOR: On the other hand, Daniel, I'm sure you were very aware of the three very fast men right alongside you the entire time. Take me through those last 400 meters in the course, where you used that sprint speed to break that tape?

DANIEL ROMANCHUK: It was a very tight finish. A group of four, my teammate Aaron, Marcel Hug, and then David Weir as well. It was just a very fast, tactical race.

THE MODERATOR: Was there strategy happening during that race? Were you talking to each other, sharing the drafts, splitting the duties as you went through the course?

DANIEL ROMANCHUK: So the first few miles, I think, were relatively fast, but as it got later in the race, there's just more and more people catching up and making a bigger group, and then things got a little bit more tactical, yes.

THE MODERATOR: I want to open up the floor for questions.

Q. Congratulations to both of you, two more victories. I wonder if I could ask each of you just to sum up your view of the other athlete next to you, two amazing athletes. You've both won a huge number of races. First of all, Manuela, what do you make of what Daniel's achieving? And then Daniel, I would ask you the same question.
MANUELA SCHAR: I'm not sure if I got that right because it's a little --

THE MODERATOR: So he'd like you to kind of sum up Daniel's achievements from your vantage point, and then Daniel, you sum up Manuela's achievements from your vantage point.

MANUELA SCHAR: It's crazy what Daniel has done the past few months. He's so young, and he's so talented. I don't know where this is going to go because there's so much more for him and I. I can't wait to see what he's able to do.

DANIEL ROMANCHUK: An amazing athlete. Really that -- she's been on a very successful past year, and it's incredible.

Q. There were some comparisons earlier to Serena Williams and some of the other greatest female athletes of all time. Do you consider yourself one of the greatest female athletes of all time? And Daniel, do you consider one of the greatest athletes of all time?
MANUELA SCHAR: No, I don't think so. I mean, we just do our job and try to get better and faster and stronger. We always have things to work on, and we try to do that work. Then we get to see how it worked in the race. Then we learn from each race and have to improve things. I'm going back, and I know what to work on.

It's kind of -- it's what we do. It's our job.

DANIEL ROMANCHUK: Kind of like she said, but also this sport has had just such a long history. It's really hard to say over the years, just so much has changed from the technology, the training methods, and it's really, really hard to say anything, starting with Bob Hall, some amazing athletes that have really helped push this sport to make it what it is today.

Q. Congratulations to both of you. Daniel, how did your experiences in last year's race help you down the stretch? It seemed like you knew exactly where you were, the pace, and you were able to hold off the rest of the competitors.
DANIEL ROMANCHUK: Something I like to do before any race is to get in a little bit early and to tour the course. So I just get a little bit more precise locations on certain landmarks, hills, bridges, turns, really anything that can change the race, road conditions at certain areas. So that's something I always do before a race.

But it is -- coming into a race for the first time, it is always kind of a little bit difficult sometimes, but just kind of not knowing the course quite as well. But I would say it has impacted the race.

THE MODERATOR: Daniel, I have a question. When you won here last year, you were still relatively unknown. I think you maybe even surprised yourself. Now everybody knows who you are. How have you grown as an athlete?

DANIEL ROMANCHUK: Getting more comfortable with one of these (indicating microphone). It's certainly been a process. It's one of the things about being out where I am at the University of Illinois, it's a great program out there, just such a diverse group of people that, if I ever need help with anything, whether it's equipment or public speaking or anything really, someone else there knows a lot more about it. So I can go there and just go ask them, I'm having issues with this. Do you have any suggestions?

THE MODERATOR: Manuela, I want to talk about parity in the sport because we've seen it a lot this year, the foot race division and the wheelchair division really coming closer together in terms of prize money and exposure. How has that changed the level of competition for you?

MANUELA SCHAR: I started doing marathons in 2013, and everything has improved so much since then within a short time, and it allows us to actually do what we love and focus on training and do training because earlier I had to work for my money. Now it allows us to become more professional and train.

THE MODERATOR: Daniel, same question. Do you see the difference in the narrowing of the parity in the sport helping out your efforts to be a repeat winner over and over again?

DANIEL ROMANCHUK: It really has made some just incredible progress in the past few years -- from the USOC changing their name to the USOPC, equaling prize money or medal payouts, the Peachtree road race equaling the bonus for the course record, it's seen some incredible things in the past year.

THE MODERATOR: 2020 obviously a big year for both of you, so I'll ask you both. As you focus on Tokyo and the 2020 Paralympic Games, is your schedule as intense as it is in a 2019, or do you maybe rest up and prepare for the big games in July and August?

MANUELA SCHAR: My year will be pretty similar to this year. I always like to prepare the year before the same as I'm planning on doing the Paralympic year. So I'll still do all the marathons, but, of course, I will be focusing more on the track too.

DANIEL ROMANCHUK: Kind of this year is actually sort of a good preparation year to see what sort of some of the travel and events will be like because I'm here and then heading to the World Championships in Dubai and then going off to the Oita Marathon in Japan. Just sort of seeing how that schedule and time change goes is a good preparation for the games.

THE MODERATOR: Manuela Schar and Daniel Romanchuk are your 2019 TCS New York City Marathon champions.

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