Hannah Cockroft

Started: She began racing at age 15 at a Loughborough University talent day in England. She had been playing wheelchair basketball before then. (Athlete, 02 Sep 2021; Facebook page, 05 Jan 2021; Athlete, 30 Aug 2024) Reason: "I attended a come and try day run by UK Athletics at Loughborough University. I tried wheelchair racing last in the day and instantly fell in love with the speed and freedom of being in the chair. A week later, I found myself at [British wheelchair racer] Tanni Grey-Thompson's house borrowing a chair." (Athlete, 02 Sep 2021) Ambition: To win two gold medals at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. (paralympic.org, 08 Jun 2023) Awards: She was named Female Para Athlete of the Year for 2023 by Athletics Weekly. (Athletics Weekly Facebook page, 08 Dec 2023) In 2023 she was named Disability Sportswoman of the Year at the Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year Awards. (bbc.co.uk, 02 Nov 2023) In 2022 she was named Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire [OBE]. (hannahcockroft.com, 31 Dec 2022) She was named Disability Sportswoman of the Year at the Leeds Sports Awards in England six times between 2017 and 2022. (hannahcockroft.com, 24 Mar 2020) She was named World Female Para Athlete of the Year for 2020 by Athletics Weekly magazine. (hannahcockroft.com, 31 Dec 2022; athleticsweekly.com, 03 Dec 2020) In 2017 she was named the Sportswoman of the Year by the British Sports Journalists' Association [SJA] and Great Britain's Disability Sportswoman of the Year at the Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year awards. In the same year she was also named Sportswoman of the Year by Disability Sports Yorkshire. (hannahcockroft.com, 24 Mar 2020; telegraph.co.uk, 06 Dec 2017; paralympic.org, 27 Oct 2017) In 2015 she was named the Paralympic Athlete of the Year by the British Athletics Writers' Association [BAWA]. (athleticsweekly.com, 13 Nov 2015) In 2014 she was named the Paralympic Athlete of the Year by British Athletics. (uka.org.uk, 2014) In January 2013 she became a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire [MBE]. Later that year she was also named the Female Paralympic Athlete of the Year by the British Sports Journalists' Association [SJA]. (Facebook page, 05 Jan 2021; hannahcockroft.com, 24 Mar 2020; paralympic.org, 28 Feb 2013) In 2010 and 2011 she received an award for Paralympic Performance of the Year from UK Athletics. (Facebook page, 05 Jan 2021) Additional Info: PRESSURE IN PARIS She made her Paralympic debut at the 2012 Games in London, where she won gold in the T34 100m and T34 200m. Having won three further Paralympic titles at Rio 2016 and another two at Tokyo 2020, she heads to the 2024 Games in Paris looking to win gold in the T34 100m and T34 800m. "At London 2012, no one knew my name and they were going to cheer for me whether I came first or last or somewhere in the middle. Every year since then, it's like, 'Oh yeah, Hannah will do it. It's easy'. People look at it and I think they don't see the work, the hours that go into it, behind it. They just see you light up and do what you do. It definitely puts the pressure on. There's girls coming through all the time and you have no idea what they're doing, and there's always the potential that they're going to just show up part of the Games and you don't even know they exist. Everything can happen on that day. A flat tyre, I'm not fit. Whatever happens. There's a lot of expectation, but I also thrive off that because pressure is belief. It's people believing that you can do it, that you can be the best." (eurosport.com, 23 Jan 2024; paralympic.org, 08 Jun 2023) COACHING CHANGE In 2022 she began working with coach Paul Moseley, whom she had actually known since she first began wheelchair racing at Leeds City Athletic Club in England. She had spent the previous 10 years being coached by Jenni Banks. "I've known Paul literally since day one of wheelchair racing, at Leeds City Athletic Club. The training is very, very different to what I did with Jenni I think in some ways, I was with Jen for 10 years, so it was quite a big scary jump. And you don't know if someone's going to be right for you until you put your head out there. So that's exactly what I did. But I've known Paul for 15 years [speaking in 2023] and I knew that we got on." (athleticsweekly.com, 27 Dec 2023; paralympic.org, 08 Jun 2023) MOVE TO CHESHIRE In 2019 she relocated from Halifax to Cheshire in England, so she could be closer to her training base at Kirkby High School in Liverpool. The catalyst for the move was having to settle for silver in the T34 100m at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin, Germany. "It definitely helped, not the living in Chester bit, but just having people to train with. I spent 12 years going round Spring Hall track [in Halifax] pretty much on my own, and it got to a point where you can't really challenge yourself. When you're training on your own you think you're going 100%, but actually you're going about 80%. When someone's next to you, it really pushes you that little bit harder. It returned a bit of the fun to the sport for me, made it a bit more social rather than just going to work, and showed me what I'd been missing a bit by doing those laps on my own in Halifax." (yorkshirepost.co.uk, 22 Dec 2019) TELEVISION WORK She hopes to work in television once her sporting career is over, and in 2018 she presented the British show 'Countryfile'. She has also appeared on other programmes such as 'The Crystal Maze', 'The Great British Bake Off', and 'Strictly Come Dancing'. "I am just trying to grab the opportunities that I can and build as much of a network up as I can while still focusing on my athletics. What I found through thinking about the future was a new motivation to realise how lucky I am and how privileged a position I'm currently in. It's quite nice to have that distraction. It's quite nice not to be totally obsessed with the next championships that are coming up." (hannahcockroft.com, 31 Dec 2022; lovesportradio.com, 04 Mar 2019; yorkshirepost.co.uk, 26 Aug 2018, 12 May 2018)

Sporting Relatives: Her partner Nathan Maguire has represented Great Britain in wheelchair racing, including at the 2016 and 2020 editions of the Paralympic Games. He won a silver medal in the mixed 4x100m relay at the 2020 Games in Tokyo. (SportsDeskOnline, 03 Nov 2023; Facebook profile, 10 Dec 2022)