Hannah Cockroft won gold at the London 2012 Paralympic Games (Image: Getty)Get daily celeb exclusives and behind the scenes house tours direct to your inboxMore Newsletters SubscribePlease enter a valid emailSomething went wrong, please try again later.More NewslettersWe use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. More infoThank you for subscribing!We have more newslettersShow me See OurPrivacy Notice See OurPrivacy Notice×Group 28 Get daily celeb exclusives and behind the scenes house tours direct to your inboxInvalid emailSomething went wrong, please try again later.Sign UpNo thanks, closeWe use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. More info×Group 28Thank you for subscribing!We have more newslettersShow MeNo thanks, closeSee our
Privacy NoticeThe countdown to the 2024 Paralympic Games is on, with the 12-day event due to kick off on 28 August in Paris. Coverage of the Games will be airing on Channel 4 across the 12 days, with some special one-off programmes thrown in. Among the shows airing is documentary Equal Play, featuring Team GB Paralympian Hannah Cockroft. Equal Play, which lands on Channel 4 on 26 August, will see Hannah investigate how school students with disabilities can find themselves isolated and excluded due to the lack of opportunities to take part in sports and physical education. Hannah, 32, is a wheelchair racer, who has won five gold medals at the Paralympics in the past. She suffered two cardiac arrests after birth, which left her with permanent damage in some areas of her brain, resulting in weak hips, deformed feet and legs and mobility problems and affecting the fine motor skills in her hands.
Hannah has opened up about the challenges she’s faced
(Image: Getty)
Hannah bagged herself two gold medals at London 2012 before picking up three more golds at Rio 2016. Despite her immense success at London 2012 – which marked her Paralympics debut – Hannah has previously revealed the special moment was overshadowed by cruel comments. She revealed people were more concerned with her appearance rather than her achievements at the time, “When I won my first gold medal at London 2012, there were more comments on Twitter about my skin because I had really bad acne than about the fact that I just won my first gold medal,” the 32 year old previously told Sports Gazette. Hannah added: “I think if I was male, people just wouldn’t care that I had spots but because I was female it was like, ‘Oh, look at her. She can’t be an athlete. Look at the state of her skin. She mustn’t eat well. She mustn’t sleep very well. She must party all of the time, she must be so dirty.’ And I was like, ‘No, no, I’m a 20-year-old girl trying to represent her country and do something really, really cool. And you’re all ruining it.’”
The Paralympian is getting ready for the 2024 Games
(Image: Getty)
Hannah is now set to compete at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. She is tipped to be one of Team GB’s medalists and is looking to retain her T34 100m and 800m titles. Speaking about what it means to be a Paralympian, Hannah told Nestle: “To me, being a Paralympic athlete means everything. It means that hard work does pay off and dreams can come true. It also means I get to be part of the best team!”Story SavedYou can find this story in My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.Follow OK! MagazineFacebookTwitterCommentMore OnIn the News
