We’re here and winning every title we can, says Hannah Cockroft
By Gemma-Louise Stevenson
Last Updated: 19/12/19 3:22pm
Great Britain's Hannah Cockroft is a five-time Paralympic champion, the holder of 12 World Championship titles, and is one of the athletes heading to Tokyo this week to take part in 'One Race'.
One Race is part of the special inauguration event planned to celebrate the opening of Tokyo's new National Stadium which will be used for the Olympics and Paralympics.
So, with athletics still searching for its new superstar, could it be argued that in Cockroft there's already someone who has been waiting on the start line and winning big for years to take on this role?
"I would love to say yes it could happen but unfortunately I'm a Paralympian and that's a limiting factor," she said speaking to Sky Sports.
"You read these headlines - Oh we need a new Usain Bolt - and you just want to scream, 'We're here, we're training as hard as we can, we're winning every title we can'. We're breaking world records. What more do you want us to do?
"We have so many incredible athletes that have a disability and I feel like the London 2012 legacy has kind of faded away a little.
"I think the world is looking for another able-bodied superstar rather the ones we have to offer, so we just have to keep pushing our names out there and hope that people keep paying attention."
Her exceptional race means that, once again, she's the current world record holder in every distance on the track up to 1500m in the T34 category.
Cockroft's results and times in Dubai set a marker for the rest of the athletes and one that shows that she's heading into 2020 with one aim, to win more gold in Tokyo.
"Sub 17 is a time I've been chasing for years," she shared.
"When you consider at London 2012 I was going 17 seconds, it's taken me since then to actually get a second quicker, which always frustrates me.
"It frustrates me because it's no time at all and yet it's all the time in the world on the track and it makes a massive difference."
Both her success and domination over the last few years, have helped to progress the Paralympic movement. Cockroft has also encouraged many of the current and next generation of Paralympic hopefuls to take up the sport and has been honest when speaking out about issues within para-sport.
"I think if you don't say what you feel needs to change then it's never going to change," Cockroft said.
"We can all sit quietly and just let things carry on or we can try and move the Paralympic movement into the same realm as what the Olympic movement is."
"So I guess I feel a bit of responsibility, given the position I'm in, to try and do my part and just to make Paralympic sport a little easier to access and a little easier to be the best in."
