The British athlete became a nine-time Paralympic champion in 2024, but she is still looking for ways to stay ahead of the chasing pack.
Shortly after her final race at the Paris Paralympics, Hannah Cockroft took a moment to reflect on another milestone in her illustrious athletics career.
“I vividly remember coming off the track and just sitting in the stadium looking at all the fans around me,” he said shortly after winning the T34 800m, a week after he also won the 100m won more gold than
Those successes secured the eighth and ninth Paralympic titles of the 32-year-old, dating back to London 2012. He rose to fame at his home Games and insists nothing will top that experience. After the anxiety of Rio and the silence of Tokyo, Paris brought back everything she had cherished in London.
“They packed the stadium and we haven’t seen that in 12 years,” Cockroft said from the garden.
“I remember coming to the track and a kid was saying ‘Cockcroft, Cockcroft.’ to shout. It gave me energy and life.”
Hannah Cockcroft (Getty)
Cockroft also describes how many competitors, from compatriot Kare Adenegan, who finished second to her in the T34 100m and 800m, to US teenager Lauren Fields, have told her she is an inspiration.
“I’m the oldest girl who’s been around the longest and the one everyone’s watched growing up,” she tells AW. “A lot of athletes started their careers because they saw me at London 2012 :
“You don’t realize the power you have when you’re out there, just trying to do what you do. It’s when people share their stories with you that you realize it’s an absolute privilege to be that person.” that potentially changes someone’s life.”
Cockroft, who holds world records in both the T34, 100m and 800m of 16.31 and 1:44.43 respectively, clocked 16.80 and 1:55.44 in Paris.
Such is his level of perfectionism, he believes those performances, despite winning both races by a wide margin, could have been better, a mindset born of trying to stay ahead of the chasers when more athletes are competing in his category. compared to previous years.
Hannah Cockroft (Getty)
“We did the T34 100m for the first time since London 2012. Our classification has come a long way. I’m dead proud to be a part of this movement.
“I’m always watching what the other girls are doing. There’s a young Chinese athlete who’s fast, and I’m certainly not getting any younger. I have to watch my back and hopefully experience will lead the way.
“I’ve done a lot of groundwork that they’ve followed, so I feel like I have to come up with new ideas. I don’t want to be the best of the five girls, I want to be the best in the world.”
One aspect of parasport that is constantly on Cockcroft’s mind is technology. He believes that other countries, such as Switzerland, are ahead of the UK when it comes to investment in wheelchairs, which he says are linked to performance. with
A prime example is Marcel Hug, the Swiss “Silver Bullet” running the OT FOXX seatpost, and Sauber, through their F1 connections, provided him with a wind tunnel to test just how aerodynamic his tool of the trade was.
Hannah Cockcroft (Getty)
With six of F1’s ten teams based in the UK, Cockroft hopes Hug’s partnership with Sauber can set a precedent for other parasport athletes.
“I absolutely believe that the partnership with the F1 teams will help us all,” he says.
“You know, I’ve seen engineers in my race seat before and they said it wasn’t aerodynamic, adding that they didn’t know how it went that fast.
“I think we’re stuck in the mindset of ‘everyone supplies the chairs, so we’ll keep making the same stuff.'” It’s never really improved.
“You know, I made the move to carbon fiber at the end of 2023. That was big for me, but it’s a world away from where we should be.
“US athletes competed in carbon fiber in 2016. We need to be proactive, not reactive.”
Looking ahead, Cockroft now has one eye on Baroness Tani Grey-Thompson’s Paralympic record of 11 gold medals, which she could match or even surpass at the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics.
“Throughout my career, people have been asking me if I’m going to record Tanni,” Cockroft adds. “I feel good, I’m getting faster and I still have things to learn. However, the next four-year cycle will be the hardest. Until then, I’m not putting gold medals around my neck.”
» This feature first appeared in the December issue of AW magazine. Subscribe to AW Magazine herecheck out our new podcast! here or subscribe to our digital archive of back issues from 1945 to the present day here
