Paralympic champ Cockroft answers the questions posed by our readers
WE HAD a great response from readers who submitted their questions for wheelchair racing star Hannah Cockroft MBE and this week, the Paralympic and world champion gives her answers!
Q: How many more records do you think that you will break in the next few years? Also, what is your ultimate goal?
A: I have no idea! I never really aim to break records, I just aim to do my training consistently and use my performances to see if my training is going well and if it is working towards getting faster.
I was once told by a coach that no one remembers times, everyone remembers medals, so the medals are the goals really, and if I have to push new records to win them that they are just a nice bonus.
My ultimate goal this year is to win two more gold medals at the Tokyo Paralympic Games, but overall, I just want to be remembered as a great sports person and make disability sports slightly easier for children and young people to get involved in.
Q: How have you found training during the pandemic? Have you done anything differently / learned anything about training in lockdown that you will carry forward after lockdown?
A: Training has had to be very creative over the last year. With gyms and tracks closed, I have had to adjust my sessions to be done on the road or on a roller (a large drum that I can push on but not move anywhere).
I have probably explored every road in my local area trying to find one that is relatively quiet and flat, but using the roads was much easier in the first lockdown as there was much less traffic on them, they’re much busier now.
I have also built a gym in my garage to continue my weight training. I think the biggest thing I have learnt over the last year is how to rest and recover.
I am so used to constantly being busy and being on the road getting to competitions, training sessions or events that I never realised how big an impact proper recovery has on your training and performance.
I will definitely be trying to organise more of this into my schedule when things start to open up and get busy again.
Q: What motivates you to keep training and competing? Is it different to what motivated you when you were younger?
My motivation is simple enjoyment. I still love what I do and going out training is my break from answering emails all day.
I still love the butterflies I get before a race, and the relief I feel when I’ve done well. My training feels rewarding and I just enjoy doing it.
Each race holds potential to get faster and push my way further into the record books and I like that challenge. Thinking about it, this has probably always been my motivation, as I’ve always loved my sport, it hasn’t changed, it has just grown with me.
Q: How much of an influence was your childhood in making you such a successful athlete?
A: I think my childhood was a massive influence on where I am today.
I struggled to get involved with sport in school, so I’ve always seen what I do now as myself making up for those lost years.
My parents were always really encouraging and taught me that I could do anything if I worked hard enough at it and I think because I was taught that from a young age, I’ve always just believed it and known that anything is possible if you want it enough.
Q: What advice would you give to youngsters hoping for a career in athletics? How might that differ from advice for youngsters in other sports?
I think my advice would be to remember that athletics is an individual sport.
You’re out there on your own, so your win is your own and your loss is your own too.
Take responsibility for your own performances, because it is all down to you.
If something is worth doing, do it yourself, don’t rely on someone else to cover parts of your training or preparation for you. And I think that comes down to everything, from training, to planning your competition schedule, to looking after your recovery and injury prevention.
You can have a coach and a physio and a doctor and whoever you want around you, but they can’t do it for you on the day.
Obviously, a lot of other sports are team based, so the advice would be different.
In wheelchair basketball, that I played before racing, I was always taught to trust and rely on my team, and I sometimes miss that element of sport. But really to any athlete in any sport, my advice is a simple - take responsibility for yourself.
Q: Did you find it difficult to train / find the right training facilities as a wheelchair user when you were younger? What advice would you give to young wheelchair racers looking to break into the sport now?
A: I didn’t start wheelchair racing until I was 15 years old because of lack of equipment and facilities, so yes, definitely!
I think the big hurdle is the initial finding of the sport.
You can search all parasports clubs in your area on the parasport website now, which I think is really helpful.
Once you’ve found your sport though, everybody deserves equal access to facilities, so just head to your local sports centre/ track like anyone else.
Spring Hall athletics track in Halifax were super helpful with me when I first started out, so just find their opening hours and head there, don’t be shy and feel like you shouldn’t be there, everyone deserves equal access to exercise.
Q: Are you a different athlete now from when you won your first medal?
Yes, definitely! I thought I trained hard 13 years ago, but my training now is 10 times harder. My competition has changed, grown and gotten tougher to beat so I have had to toughen up with it. My work ethic has never changed though, I still know what I want and work hard for it, I can just manage the training better now.
Q: How has the technology of wheelchair racing developed since you have been an athlete? How far can technology change the sport in the future?
The technology in wheelchair racing has changed minimally since I started pushing, which is quite disappointing.
The only big change really has been focus on bearings in the wheels and different styles of gloves, so nothing has changed on the main body of the chair.
Advancement in technology could change my sport completely.
The chairs we currently race probably couldn’t get much worse in terms of aerodynamics and a complete remodel could see athletes going seconds quicker, but there unfortunately just isn’t the money or interest in what we do to make the changes.
The companies that sell the racing wheelchairs have minimal competition in the market, so there is no pressure on them to change their design, they just stick with what they know.
A few athletes are now trying to push for these changes, but I don’t think we will see any big advancements in my career technology wise.