Hannah Cockroft on on basketball inspiration and being part of Paralympic power couple
British Paralympic star ‘Hurricane’ Hannah Cockroft is so hardwired to win that she even challenges fiancee Nathan Maguire to duels at home.
The Halifax athlete, 31, has dominated wheelchair racing for the last decade, claiming seven Paralympic golds, 14 World Championship titles and five world records.
By herself she has made a sizeable contribution to the 204 Olympic and Paralympic medals won by British track and field athletes since National Lottery funding began in 1997.
Few have been quick enough to keep pace with Cockroft on the track but husband-to-be and fellow wheelchair racer Maguire revels in putting her reflexes to the test.
“We’re both incredibly competitive,” she said. “Around the house everything is a race.
“Nathan will always walk two steps ahead of me just so that he’s winning in life somehow, but I always like to remind him that I have more medals in the cupboard.
“We’ll do silly things like who can get up and get a drink quickest from the kitchen or who can then drink that drink quickest.
“It’s just ridiculous little things which I think people watching just go, you two are mad.”
Cockroft has been overcoming challenges for as long as she can remember.
Shortly after she was born, Cockroft suffered two cardiac arrests which left her with brain damage. As a result, her hips were weakened and her legs and feet were similarly affected.
But that didn’t stop her dreaming big. She said: “At three years old I wanted to be a ballerina – not the best career path for a girl that could barely stand up!
“Following that, pop star was a strong favourite along with an actress or princess.”
It was not until Year 8 that Cockroft realised there were opportunities for wheelchair users to pursue a career in sports.
“My PE teacher, Mrs Daniel, managed to get the local wheelchair basketball team to come and do a demo in school and the rest is history really,” she said.
“Had she not invited the team in that day, I might never have found a pathway into wheelchair sports.”
Fast forward seven years and Cockroft was a Paralympic champion. It was just after London 2012, with her first Paralympic gold medals in the bag, that Cockroft and Maguire met for the first time.
The pair met again properly in the lead up to Rio 2016, with Maguire on the relay team with Cockroft’s training partner Richard Chiassaro and they grew closer from there.
Maguire, who won relay silver in Tokyo and gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, is hoping to hit the same heights as his betrothed.
But Cockroft senses the 26-year-old is on the cusp of cracking the T54 category.
“Nathan has not been in the sport for as long as I have so I definitely have experience over him,” she said.
“But I think watching him, especially over the last three years, he’s really been breaking chunks off, getting closer and closer to those medals that he really wants.
“He has it deep within him. I think he can win some medals in Paris. It’s going to be tough – they are such close races, anyone could come first or eighth – but that makes it exciting.
“I know that if he makes the right decisions on the day, then he can definitely cross that line first.”
If Hollywood was writing their script then the Paralympic power couple would toast to a successful summer at their post-Paris wedding and Cockroft jests that she’s only interested in a golden groom.
“If he doesn’t bring home a medal I might not marry him,” she said, tongue in cheek.
“Whatever happens, our wedding will be a massive celebration and I’m not wishing my days away, but I can’t wait.”
With more than £30m a week raised for Good Causes, including vital funding into elite and grassroots sport, National Lottery players support our Olympic and Paralympic athletes to live their dreams and make the nation proud, as well as providing more opportunities for people to take part in sport. To find out more visit: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk