Sydney Barta’s Journey To Becoming A Paralympian Made Her a Perfect Candidate For A Rhodes Scholarship

Nearly four years ago, when Sydney Barta texted her mom, Laura, that she had gotten into Stanford, she received a rather casual response — her mom hit the like emoji on the message.

So, when the 21-year-old Barta texted her mom last month about winning a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship that will help in her pursuit of becoming an orthopedic surgeon, Barta put away her phone and went into meetings about the next steps.

By the time the Paralympic sprinter picked up her phone again, she saw a different reaction than the Stanford news.

“She had blown up my phone,” said Barta, who was near her hometown of Arlington, Virginia, when she got the news. “And then I went down to see her and she was ... so excited. ‘This is insane. The most incredible thing ever.’ I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh! Wow! I can’t believe that you’re so excited considering you didn’t care that I got Stanford.’ And she’s like, ‘This is crazy.’”

Crazy is one word for Barta’s journey thus far. Expected is another.

The 200-meter T64 bronze medalist at the recent World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi has long known about the Rhodes Scholarship, which goes to a select few students across the world each year to attend the University of Oxford in England. Growing up, Barta had been around Rhodes Scholars through her mom’s friends from her days at Princeton, where Laura played basketball.

“It was just something that was well-regarded for a long time, in my childhood,” said Barta, who really started thinking about a Rhodes Scholarship for herself when mentored by a UC Berkeley professor while applying to Stanford.

Now, Barta is just like them, a Rhodes Scholar. It is an honor that hits a little bit harder for Barta, who had her left leg amputated below the knee when she was 6 years old after a scaffolding at a fun run fell on top of her, shattering her left ankle. She developed compartment syndrome and needed 21 surgeries over two years before receiving her first prosthetic. 

On the Rhodes Scholarship website, there is a line about ideal candidates that says: “They should be committed to make a strong difference for good in the world, be concerned for the welfare of others, and be acutely conscious of inequities.”

“This is one thing I was asked in my Rhodes final interview a couple weeks ago,” Barta said. “I have put myself in a situation where I could go be a professional athlete or I could just go straight to med school. Why Rhodes? And I think the answer is because of that mission statement pretty much alone, that deep care and mission of everyone who is a Rhodes Scholar, who has been a Rhodes Scholar, for making the world a better place based off of some of the good fortune or hard work or gifts that they’ve gotten is absolutely what I want to do.”

Barta has been studying bioengineering at Stanford, with a focus on gait analysis. As a Para athlete, she knows the obstacles others in situations like hers have to deal with in everyday life, much less those who strive to be elite competitors in any sport. 

Receiving the Rhodes Scholarship has been part of a packed 2025 for Barta.

In April, she became the first Para track and field athlete in Stanford history, running in two meets in the spring. This fall, she was appointed to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Organizing Committee’s Collegiate Advisory Council. Through that role, she has interacted with some college athletic directors and realized that many are not even aware of the plight Para athletes face in participating in an NCAA sport. For instance, track and field athletes only were allowed to participate in the Drake Relays, one of the sport’s biggest meets, beginning in 2023.

“I knew I wanted to make a difference in the world of Para,” Barta said, “but it started really crystallizing when I got put on the Stanford track team because I just really realized that this was a super-unique experience and I knew that I was in a position where I had to be the steward of people with disabilities, amputees, in the NCAA space.”

One of the ways she is approaching those ADs, who are trying to find funding to keep sports programs afloat with the ever-changing NCAA landscape, is by showing them how it can be a victory for the school as well as an opportunity for the athletes.

“These are people who want to be Paralympians,” Barta said, “and when they’re told, ‘We’re not going to be able to support you on the collegiate level,’ they say, ‘Well, then I’ll just wait to get a degree.’ It’s just such a travesty in my head that we’re making these 17-year-olds decide between an athletic career and an education just on the basis of having a disability.”

Coincidentally, Barta had already planned a trip to Oxford this winter break to see a friend. Now, she will be able to get a close view of where she will call home for two years after she finishes her last two quarters and graduates from Stanford.

Barta, set to compete for Stanford again this spring, is coming off her bronze medal at worlds, which was her first international competition since sustaining navicular fractures in her right foot just before the 2024 Paris Paralympics, forcing her to miss the Games. 

She finished with a time of 27.51 in the women’s 200 T64 at worlds, trailing gold medalist Marlene van Gansewinkel of the Netherlands (26.16) and silver medalist Marissa Papaconstantinou of Canada (27.07). 

Barta says her time in Oxford, as intense as that will be, will help her with training for the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics. If not for Oxford, she would be in med school, which she is in the process of interviewing for now.

“I’m very excited to have a little bit more flexibility in my schedule than I’ve had before and be able to prioritize the things that I want to prioritize,” Barta said. 

Steve Drumwright is a journalist based in Murrieta, California. He is a freelance contributor to usatf.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.