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“I’m better than Jesus,” says Hannah Cockroft. “I died and came back twice.”
Britain’s top wheelchair athlete reflects on how she became who she is and why she really shouldn’t be here ahead of the Paris Paralympics.
In the first 24 hours of her life, Cockroft suffered two heart attacks, the first of which left her lifeless for 20 minutes. When her heart stopped for the second time, doctors feared she would not survive.
Yet here she is, aged 32, with seven Paralympic wins and 16 world titles to her name, as ParalympicsGB’s golden banker for the Games.
“I was given a third chance at life,” she says. “Why not do something with it? I think that thought was always in my head since I was a kid, which sounds really morbid, but it just meant that I always wanted to do something awesome.
“When I was little and people asked me what I wanted to be, I always said, ‘Famous. ’ I didn’t care why I was famous, I just wanted people to know my name. I would never in a million years have thought about athletics or sports, but here we are. I feel incredibly lucky that this is my life because it could have ended very differently.”
She will defend His T34 titles in 100 and 800 m In Paris, she is the overwhelming favourite in both competitions. It is a pressure she has learned to live with as a dominant force in the sport for more than a decade. She is the ultimate winner and she wouldn’t change it for the world.
“I know that when we get to the start line, the target will be on my back. I am the world record holder. I am the Paralympic champion. I am the world champion. That’s just the way it is,” she says. “I don’t believe in lining up without wanting gold.”
Since she rose to prominence at London 2012, she has only been beaten once at a major championship. That was at the European Championships in Berlin in 2018, when fellow Briton Kare Adenegan pushed her to silver in the 100m.
“Sometimes people tell me: ‘You always win by a lot of miles, why bother? ’ But in my head, every race is close,” he says.
“Kare is a fantastic athlete and she is a threat all the time. She has the ability to beat me. She just needs to step up and do it. I don’t mean it in a bad way. I know she can beat me. But that’s what motivates me in training. I have to try to beat her.”
‘Every decision she makes is to try to win a Paralympic medal’
Her competitive nature is obvious, but there is a softer, more caring side to Cockroft that is revealed in Channel 4’s Path to Paris: Paralympic Dreams documentary.
In the documentary, Cockroft is at home in Chester with her fiancé Nathan Maguire, a Paralympian who won a bronze medal in the 800m at the World Championships earlier this year. In the documentary, she confesses that she would rather he win a medal in Paris than her.
“I am the only person who sees the work he puts in day in and day out in everything he does. Every decision he makes, everything he does, is to try to win a Paralympic medal,” she says.
“Just seeing how much that medal meant to him at the World Championships in May – he was smiling bigger than the gold medallist – was just incredible.
“I constantly tell him: ‘If you believe you can win, you will do it’, and this year something has changed in him. He is braver, he has confidence and I think that will make a big difference when we get to Paris. I think it is his time.”
“Walking has become more difficult as I get older”
Maguire’s spinal cord inflammation when he was eight has left him paralysed from the waist down. Despite the brain damage sustained during his traumatic start, which affected his balance and fine motor skills, Cockroft can stand and walk, but not very far, or as far as he once could.
“I’ve never hidden the fact that I can walk. In fact, I’m incredibly proud of it – it was something my parents worked hard on when I was a child,” she says. “But walking has definitely become more difficult as I’ve gotten older. I’m much more reliant on my wheelchair.
“I don’t leave the house without my wheelchair anymore, whereas before I could walk around the supermarket and things like that. Now I can’t go that far anymore.
“I can probably stand for about two minutes and then I get tired and need to sit down. I dread thinking what would happen if I couldn’t stand because it would make our lives so much harder.”
“These are the Games we have been waiting for since 2012”
The couple are due to marry in four weeks, but for now all their attention is on Paris, where ParalympicsGB will be looking to improve on the 124 medals they won in Tokyo, with the help of National Lottery funding making it possible.
“It makes us incredibly proud that the British public supports us in this way,” she says. “It makes us feel equal in a world that is not equal.”
Cockroft’s dream, beyond her ambitions for herself and Maguire, is for Paris to eventually equal London as a Paralympic spectacle, although with just over half of the 2.8 million tickets sold there is still work to be done.
“I think these are the Games we have been waiting for since London 2012,” she says. “I watched every Olympics and that athletics stadium was packed the whole time. I didn’t see a single empty seat. I have so much hope that Paris can be the same for us.”
“Watching the French Paralympic team at the Olympic closing ceremony and hearing Paris officials say, ‘We’re not done,’ gave me goosebumps and made me feel respected as an athlete.”
Path to Paris: Paralympic Dreams will air on Channel 4 on Sunday 25 August at 4:55pm.
The National Lottery has invested more than £300 million in grassroots and elite sport.