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She was 60 days and 1,300 miles into her journey from Los Angeles to Honolulu on her watercraft, the Row of Life, Madsen’s wife Debra confirmed on Facebook.
The trip to recover Madsen’s boat could take two weeks as they search the ocean. Her boat was last known to be more than 860 miles away from Hawaii, according to the Associated Press.
The mission includes Capt. Russ Johnson and crew members Janell Clark and Jackie Troller on Johnson’s sailboat, Blue Moon. They reportedly expect it to take five days before they’ll be in the area where Madsen’s boat is likely located.
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Johnson estimated it would take three days to find Row of Life and secure it to his boat and then five days or more to get to Diamond Head in Honolulu, the Associated Press reported.
Madsen was a 1978 graduate of Fairborn Baker High School, where she played on the volleyball team, according to Fairborn City Schools.
She was a Marine Corp veteran and became a paraplegic in 1993 during surgery on her back for a basketball injury, according to Team USA.
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Madsen started rowing in 1998 and complete her first trip across the Atlantic Ocean in 2007. She made the trip a second time later in her life.
In 2008, she competed at the Paralympic Beijing Games 2008 in rowing, in the 2012 London Games in shot put and in Rio in 2016 in shot put and javelin.
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