With no less than five world records, seven Paralympic gold medals, and 12 world championship titles, Hannah Cockroft โ one of Britainโs most successful athletes ever โ is finally a little bit comfortable with the role model label.
โI used to really hate it when people said, โOh youโre my role model, youโre my inspirationโ.
Iโd always think, โIโm just living my life!โ But if all Iโm doing is living my life and they see that as something to look up to, then actually that is a massive privilege,โ says the 29-year-old wheelchair racer,ย who picked up two golds in Tokyo in her T34 category โ the 800m and 100m, smashing her own world record in the process.
But thatโs the thing about disability; people need to see it represented in every walk of life โ from the racing track in major sporting events to TV, film and media in a normal, everyday way that doesnโt necessarily focus on the disability itself.
โI had a strange perception of my disability growing up, I didnโt know anyone else who had a disability until I was 12, so I just always saw myself as different and I didnโt really know why.
I was never treated differently, I lived in a very able-bodied world, I just struggled with a few things,โ Cockroft says.
She doesnโt remember ever seeing a wheelchair on TV โ โNothing! I never saw anyone with a disability โ and I was born in 1992!โ โ which really contributed to how she felt about her wheelchair growing up.
Her disability was caused by two cardiac arrests at birth leaving her with brain damage, damage to her hips, legs and feet and issues with fine motor skills, balance and mobility.
โI hated my wheelchair โย hatedย it,โ she says, โbecause I felt it made me look different from my friends and family.
You wouldnโt see me sat here in it if I hadnโt have found sport, I would have walked her, I would have found a way.โ
Those whoโve seen Cockroft sprint around the track will be used to seeing her in a chair,ย but she can walk around her house and local town.
โI canโt walk for very long, or far, or quickly,โ she explains. And as a child and teenager, she tried to cope without a wheelchair at all.
โActually, by avoiding my chair I took away my own independence, and thatโs what it is to me now โ my independence. Whether Iโm in this one [an everyday chair] or whether Iโm out on the track, I can do everything myself.
โI hope there are some kids out there who see that, and it helps them accept it.
As much as society paints disability as the worst thing ever and, โOh Iโd hate to be disabledโ, itโs really not!
You just have to find your coping mechanisms and accept that this is what you are and you can absolutely do everything if you just accept the help. My help was the chair.โ
Now, she says, her chair feels like a part of her โ and starring in a new Mรผllerlight campaign felt like an important step in disability representation.
โIt was incredible. Youโre seeing a wheelchair user in an advert, and itโs not about disability, itโs about โhaving it allโ โ itโs about yoghurts!โ Cockroft says. โIโm in the biggest dress ever, itโs so heavy, and it was just a situation that youโd never put a disabled person in but Mรผller put me there, and thatโs what representation is โ itโs showing that as a disabled person, you can do everything.โ
London 2012, Cockroftโs first Paralympic Games, really helped boost the profile of para-athletics in the UK, and after the huge numbers in crowd support (โPeople kept saying, โYou wonโt be ready for the noiseโ, and we werenโt!โ) and the buzz around the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, the delayed Tokyo 2020 event โ with no crowds due to Covid restrictions โ was much harder than she imagined.
โWe obviously knew there would be a lot of restrictions, but when we got into the stadium it was absolutely silent. I thought Iโd be ready for it, but I really, really wasnโt.
Obviously, there was nothing that could be done about it, but I donโt cry and I cried at the end of that race,โ Cockroft recalls. โYou kind of do it for that buzz, and it just didnโt feel like the Games had happened, almost.โ
Mentally, that was tough โ especially after five years of lead-up and one particularly hard year before it when the pandemic struck.
โItโs definitely scary when you see people like you dying [a significant percentage of people who died from Covid had disabilities and underlying health conditions].
For a long time, me and Nathan [Maguire, her boyfriend, who is also a wheelchair athlete] didnโt leave the house,โ she says.
The pair met on a training camp ahead of Rio, although Cockroft reveals with a laugh: โHe actually says he met me in 2012, heโs got a picture of him asking for my autograph โ I donโt remember so I donโt count that as us meeting!โ
Theyโve found accessibility as a couple particularly challenging. โWeโve had taxi drivers not let us in the taxi together, bus drivers not let us on a bus [due to space issues]. ย
Just because we have a disability doesnโt mean we have to have an able-bodied carer with us all the time.
Imagine getting on a bus with your girlfriend and you were told youโve got to sit three buses back.
โItโs already pretty difficult getting two wheelchairs around anywhere, so when people try and stop you being togetherโฆ I know how to assist him and he knows how to assist me, so we work perfectly as a team.โ
Something Cockroft is really passionate about is ensuring youngsters get access to sport if they have a disability.
She may be known as โHurricane Hannahโ now, aiming for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games and beyond (โAs long as my body can keep doing what itโs doing, I want to carry onโ) but she was excluded from PE at school.
โI think things are changing, but I still have kids tell me that theyโre not allowed to do PE at school.
If you donโt have the parental support or financial support [to visit a specialised club], if youโre also missing sport at school because youโve got a disability, youโve got no way in, and thatโs what worries me,โ she says.
โA race chair off the shelf costs between ยฃ3,000 โ ยฃ5,000 โ itโs not money that my mum and dad had. I was lucky, I borrowed a chair and thatโs what most kids do now.
I pass on my old chairs to my club in Leeds, so there are several other Hannah Cockroftโs whizzing around!โ
But there are less than 15 wheelchair racing clubs in the UK, she says. โI want to make it so you just go to your local club, get a race chair and give it a go,โ says Cockroft.
โEven when I had my own race chair, I wasnโt allowed to push round with the runners โ we need to change that.โ