Cockroft competes in the Women's 200m - T34 Final at the Paralympic Games in London
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Hannah Cockroft of Great Britain celebrate winning gold medals in the Women's 200m T34 Wheelchair Final with Dutch silver and bronze medallists Amy Siemons and Desiree Vranken at the London Paralympics
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With the philosophy “I refuse to lose,” Cockcroft was unbeatable at the London 2012 Paralympics where she was roared on to two gold medals by 80,000 home spectators.
In the 100m heats she smashed the Paralympic record with a time of 18.24, which she lowered further to 18.06 in the final. The 200m was a similar story with her breaking the Paralympic record in the heats (33.20) before she demolished the opposition in the final with a time of 31.90. In both events she was ahead of Amy Siemons from the Netherlands.
Speaking after the Games, Cockroft said: "Someone said to me after the Games that when they watched us race, any of us, they forgot that we had our disability. And that's something fantastic because they were concentrating on what we were doing rather than the things that we can't do.”
Born in 1992 the Halifax girl took up athletics in 2007 aged 15 at a Loughborough University talent day where she tried wheelchair racing for the first time. Before that she had competed in swimming, seated discus, wheelchair basketball and rugby at secondary school.
In 2010 Cockroft broke nine world records and won her first international medals at the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championship in New Zealand. She won gold in the 100m (18.98) and 200m (33.72) with Championship record performances.
‘Hurricane Hannah’ continued her record breaking in 2012 smashing the 100m and 200m on a regular basis. In May she lowered her 100m T34 best to 17.60 at a meeting in Switzerland whilst her time of 31.23 in the 200m set at the US Trials in July has yet to be bettered.
In the 2013 New Year's Honours, she was awarded a Member of the British Empire (MBE).
