Introduction to wheelchair racing

After being turned away from sport throughout her primary education, Cockroft competed at secondary school in swimming, seated discus and wheelchair basketball.^[10][11]

As a result of a silver medal performance in the seated discus at the UK School Games, she attended a British Paralympic Association talent day at Loughborough University in October 2007.^[12][10] Here, she was given her first opportunity to try an elite racing wheelchair by Dr Ian Thompson, husband of former wheelchair racer Tanni Grey-Thompson.^[13]

Thompson went on to coach her for the first year of her career.^[10] In 2008 a dance academy she attended gave the proceeds from programme sales at its annual show to help her buy her own racing chair, but when it arrived, its made-to-measure set up was incorrect, so her father, a welder, modified the wheelchair to fit.^[11] After returning to the UK School Games that year, and taking gold in her first competitive 100 metres race, she was subsequently invited to join the Great Britain Paralympic Team shortly after the Beijing Paralympics.^[10] In 2009, Cockroft participated in her first ever road race; the London Mini Marathon, taking the Champion title in the girls 14–19 age group category.

2010

By 2010, Cockroft was being coached by Peter Eriksson, head Paralympic coach at UK Athletics.^[14] She again competed in the London Mini marathon, retaining her title as the female champion and at the Knowsley disability athletics challenge in May, she broke her first World Record in the T34 400 metres, recording a time of 65.51 seconds. Later that month, Cockroft sat her A-level exams and broke seven more world records in the space of eight days.^{[citation needed]} At the Aviva and UK Athletics Awards in December, she received the Best British Paralympic Performance award for 2010.^{[citation needed]}

2011

Cockroft made her senior Great Britain team debut at the age of 19, at the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand. Here, she took gold in the T34 100 metres and the T34 200 metres.^[15] Later that year she made her junior representative debut at the IWAS World Junior Championships, winning both the 200 metres and 400 metres. Her performances earned her a second Best British Paralympic Performance award in November 2011 and honorary lifetime membership of her athletics club, Leeds City AC.

2012

In May 2012, Cockroft became the first Paralympic athlete to break a world record in the London Olympic Stadium, recording a time of 18.56 seconds to win the T34 100 metres.^[16] She broke the record again at the Swiss National Championships later that month, finishing in 17.60 seconds.

On 31 August 2012, Cockroft competed in her first Paralympic Games final and won Great Britain's first track gold medal since 2004, and first track and field gold medal of the 2012 Summer Paralympics, winning the final of the 100 metres T34 in 18.05 seconds, a Paralympic record.^[17] On 6 September, she won another gold medal in 200 metres T34 in 31.90 seconds, also a Paralympic record.^[18] In honour of her achievements at London 2012, Royal Mail issued two postage stamps featuring Cockroft and painted two post boxes gold in her home town of Halifax.^[19][20] She was awarded the freedom of Calderdale at a homecoming event at the Halifax Piece Hall and was named an MBE in the 2013 New Year Honours.^[21][22]

2013

On 28 July, Cockroft won the T33/T34 100 metres race at the Anniversary Games at the Olympic Stadium with a stadium record time of 17.80 seconds.^[23] Later that month, at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon, Cockroft retained both her T34 100 metres and T34 200 metres titles.^[24][25]

Cockroft was named in the 2013 BBC Sports Personality of the Year shortlist, coming 7th overall. She was the first Paralympian to ever be nominated for the award outside of a Paralympic year.^{[citation needed]}

2014

In March, Cockroft competed in and won a Sport Relief edition of Strictly Come Dancing, dancing with Pasha Kovalev.^[26] On 1 June, Cockroft recorded a new world-record time of 3.53.57 over 1500 metres during the Bedford International Games.^[27]

In August, Cockroft took gold in 100 metres and for the first time competed in the 800 metres, winning gold at her first IPC European Championships that were held in Swansea. She later took her fourth title as British Athletics Para athlete of the year and was named Athletics Weekly female para athlete of the year.^{[citation needed]}

2015

2015 saw Cockroft lose her first race in seven years, when she came second to British compatriot Kare Adenegan over 400 metres at the Newham open meet in July. She won the 800 metres later the same day. In Doha at the IPC World Championships at the end of the season, Cockroft retained her world champion title over the 100 metres, and won her first gold medals over the 400 metres and 800 metres, on a world championship stage.

2016

At the 2016 Rio Summer Paralympic Games, Cockroft won three gold medals, retaining her title in the Women's 100 metres T34 Final,^[28] and winning the Women's 400 metres T34 Final, recording a new world-record time of 58.78 seconds,^[29] and the Women's 800 metres T34 Final.^[30] She broke the Games record in all three events. Upon her return home, she was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of West Yorkshire.

2017

In 2017, Cockroft raced over the 1500 metres for the third time in her career, breaking the T34 World record with a time of 3.50.22. She now held the full set of T34 World Records for the first time. At the same meet, held in Arbon in Switzerland, she also demolished her 400-metre World record set the previous year at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, and her 800-metre World Record, recording a new time of 1.55.73. In July, she returned 'home' to the QEII Olympic Stadium in Stratford to compete in her fourth World Championships. Although she had food poisoning the night before the T34 100 metres final, Cockroft powered home to take gold in a new world-record time of 17.18 seconds. She also became world champion over the 800 metres and 400 metres, making her a 10-time world champion and the most decorated British athlete in World Championship history. Cockroft was named British Sportswoman of the year by the Sports Journalists Association for her achievements. She was the first Paralympic athlete to ever win the award in its 57-year history.

2018

2018 saw Cockroft's first defeat on the international stage. After topping the podium for seven years, the 26-year-old won silver in the T34 100 metres at the World Para Athletics European Championships in Berlin. She then went on to regain her European Champion title over the 800 metres, after missing the event in 2016.

2021

In June 2021, Cockroft was among the first dozen athletes chosen to represent the UK at the postponed 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo.^[31] At the end of June, she was in Manchester for the British Athletic Championships where she was first in a mixed classification 400 metres wheelchair race in front of Sammi Kinghorn and Mel Woods.^[32] She successfully retained her women's 100 metres T34 Paralympic title after winning gold at the Tokyo Paralympics with a new world record timing of 16.39 seconds.^[33] It was also her third consecutive Paralympic gold medal in women's 100 metres event and her sixth Paralympic gold medal.^[34]

Records