Hannah Cockroft facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Hannah Cockroft
CBE DL

Cockroft in 2010
Personal information
Nickname(s)	Hurricane Hannah
Born	(1992-07-30) 30 July 1992 (age 32) Halifax, West Yorkshire, England
Sport
Country	Great Britain
Sport	Wheelchair racing
Disability class	T34
Event(s)	100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 800 m
Club	Leeds City AC
Coached by	Jenni Banks
Achievements and titles
Paralympic finals	2012
Medal record Women's para athletics Representing  Great Britain Paralympic Games Gold 2012 London 100 m T34 Gold 2012 London 200 m T34 Gold 2016 Rio 100 m T34 Gold 2016 Rio 400 m T34 Gold 2016 Rio 800 m T34 Gold 2020 Tokyo 100 m T34 Gold 2020 Tokyo 800 m T34 Gold 2024 Paris 100 m T34 Gold 2024 Paris 800 m T34 World Championships Gold 2011 Christchurch 100 m T34 Gold 2011 Christchurch 200 m T34 Gold 2013 Lyon 100 m T34 Gold 2013 Lyon 200 m T34 Gold 2015 Doha 100 m T34 Gold 2015 Doha 400 m T34 Gold 2015 Doha 800 m T34 Gold 2017 London 100 m T34 Gold 2017 London 400 m T34 Gold 2017 London 800 m T34 Gold 2019 Dubai 100 m T34 Gold 2019 Dubai 800 m T34 Gold 2023 Paris 100 m T34 Gold 2023 Paris 800 m T34 Gold 2024 Kobe 100 m T34 Gold 2024 Kobe 800 m T34 European Championships Gold 2014 Swansea 100 m – T34 Gold 2014 Swansea 800 m – T34 Silver 2018 Berlin 100 m – T34 Gold 2018 Berlin 800 m – T34 IWAS World Junior Championships Gold 2011 Dubai 200 m T34/53 Gold 2011 Dubai 400 m T34/53 Silver 2011 Dubai 100 m T34/53 Silver 2011 Dubai 800 m T34/53

100 m 18.06 gold medal at the 2012 Paralympic Games

Cockroft winning the 100 m T34 qualifying heat at the 2012 Summer Paralympics

Hannah Lucy Cockroft (born July 30, 1992) is a British wheelchair racer and TV presenter. She is known for her amazing speed in sprint races. Hannah competes in the T34 classification, which is for athletes with certain types of movement challenges.

Hannah holds many world records in her sport. She is the fastest in the 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1500 metres races for her classification. She also holds Paralympic records for the 100, 200, 400, and 800 metres. Hannah has won many gold medals for Great Britain at the Paralympic Games. She won two golds in 2012 and three more in 2016.

Early Life and Sports Journey

Hannah Cockroft was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. When she was a baby, she had some health problems that affected her brain. This caused her to have weak hips and legs, making it hard to walk long distances. Because of this, Hannah uses a wheelchair for getting around.

Starting Wheelchair Racing

When Hannah was younger, she wasn't always allowed to join in sports. But in secondary school, she tried swimming, seated discus, and wheelchair basketball.

After winning a silver medal in seated discus at the UK School Games, Hannah went to a special event in 2007. Here, she got to try an elite racing wheelchair for the first time. This was thanks to Dr. Ian Thompson, whose wife was a famous wheelchair racer named Tanni Grey-Thompson.

Dr. Thompson became Hannah's first coach. In 2008, a dance group Hannah was part of helped her buy her own racing wheelchair. When it arrived, it didn't fit quite right. So, her dad, who is a welder, fixed it to fit her perfectly! After that, Hannah won gold in her first 100 metres race at the UK School Games. Soon after, she was invited to join the Great Britain Paralympic Team. In 2009, she won the London Mini Marathon, which was her first road race.

Hannah's Racing Career

2010: Breaking Records

By 2010, Hannah was coached by Peter Eriksson, a top Paralympic coach. She won the London Mini Marathon again. In May, she broke her first World Record in the T34 400 metres race. She set a time of 65.51 seconds. That same month, Hannah broke seven more world records in just eight days! She also won the Best British Paralympic Performance award for 2010.

2011: First World Titles

At 19, Hannah joined the senior Great Britain team for the first time. She competed in the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships in New Zealand. There, she won gold medals in both the T34 100 metres and T34 200 metres. Later that year, she won two more golds at the IWAS World Junior Championships. Her amazing results earned her another Best British Paralympic Performance award.

2012: Paralympic Gold in London

In May 2012, Hannah made history. She was the first Paralympic athlete to break a world record in the London Olympic Stadium. She won the T34 100 metres in 18.56 seconds. She broke the record again later that month, finishing in 17.60 seconds.

On August 31, 2012, Hannah competed in her first Paralympic Games final. She won Great Britain's first track gold medal of the 2012 Summer Paralympics! She won the 100 metres T34 in 18.05 seconds, setting a new Paralympic record. On September 6, she won another gold medal in the 200 metres T34 with a time of 31.90 seconds, also a Paralympic record.

To celebrate her wins, Royal Mail made special postage stamps with Hannah on them. They also painted two post boxes gold in her hometown of Halifax. She was given the freedom of Calderdale and was made an MBE in 2013.

2013: More World Titles

On July 28, Hannah won the T33/T34 100 metres race at the Anniversary Games in the Olympic Stadium. She set a stadium record of 17.80 seconds. Later that month, at the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon, Hannah won both her T34 100 metres and T34 200 metres titles again.

Hannah was also chosen for the 2013 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. She was the first Paralympian ever to be nominated for this award outside of a Paralympic year!

2014: New Distances and Wins

In March, Hannah won a special Sport Relief episode of Strictly Come Dancing. On June 1, she set a new world record for the 1500 metres race with a time of 3:53.57.

In August, Hannah won gold in the 100 metres at her first IPC European Championships in Swansea. She also tried the 800 metres for the first time and won gold! She was named British Athletics Para athlete of the year for the fourth time.

2015: First Defeat and New Golds

In 2015, Hannah lost her first race in seven years. She came second in the 400 metres to fellow British athlete Kare Adenegan. But she won the 800 metres later that day. At the IPC World Championships in Doha, Hannah won her 100 metres world title again. She also won her first gold medals in the 400 metres and 800 metres at a World Championship.

2016: Triple Gold in Rio

At the 2016 Rio Summer Paralympic Games, Hannah won three gold medals! She won the Women's 100 metres T34 Final again. She also won the Women's 400 metres T34 Final, setting a new world record of 58.78 seconds. And she won the Women's 800 metres T34 Final. She broke the Games record in all three races! When she came home, she became a Deputy Lieutenant of West Yorkshire.

2017: Holding All World Records

In 2017, Hannah raced the 1500 metres again and broke the T34 World record with a time of 3:50.22. This meant she now held all the T34 World Records! At the same event in Arbon, Switzerland, she also broke her 400-metre and 800-metre World Records. In July, she returned to the QEII Olympic Stadium for her fourth World Championships. Even though she was unwell, Hannah won gold in the T34 100 metres with a new world record of 17.18 seconds. She also became world champion in the 800 metres and 400 metres. This made her a 10-time world champion and the most successful British athlete in World Championship history! She was named British Sportswoman of the year by the Sports Journalists Association.

2018: European Silver

In 2018, Hannah had her first defeat at an international competition. After winning gold for seven years, she won a silver medal in the T34 100 metres at the World Para Athletics European Championships in Berlin. But she then won her European Champion title back in the 800 metres.

2021: Tokyo Gold and New World Record

In June 2021, Hannah was chosen to represent the UK at the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo. She won her women's 100 metres T34 Paralympic title again. She set a new world record time of 16.39 seconds! This was her third gold medal in a row for the 100 metres and her seventh Paralympic gold medal overall.

2023: Another World Title

In July 2023, Hannah won her sixth 100m world title at the Para Athletics World Championships in Paris.

2024: Paris Paralympic Success

Hannah was chosen to compete at the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris, France. She won gold in the 100m T34 with a time of 17.99 seconds. This was more than a second faster than her teammate Kare Adenegan. In the 800m T34, she also won gold in 1:55:44, eight seconds ahead of Kare Adenegan. These wins brought her total Olympic gold medals to nine!

Personal Life

In 2013, Hannah moved from her home in Yorkshire to study journalism and media at Coventry University. She moved back to Halifax in 2016 to get ready for the Rio Paralympic Games. Hannah hopes to work in television after her athletics career.

In 2014, Hannah challenged Boris Johnson, who was then the Mayor of London, to spend a day in a wheelchair. Hannah said that "wheelchair access on the London Underground is so bad" that he wouldn't be able to make all his appointments. Mayor Johnson didn't take the challenge, but he thanked Hannah for showing how hard it can be for people using wheelchairs.

Hannah looks up to Canadian wheelchair racer Chantal Petitclerc. Chantal has won 15 Paralympic gold medals and has helped Hannah as a mentor.

In March 2019, Hannah was on a special Stand Up To Cancer episode of The Great British Bake Off. In 2020, Hannah and her partner Nathan Maguire were on a celebrity episode of the BBC show The Hit List.

Awards and Recognition

Hannah Cockroft has received many honours for her amazing achievements in athletics:

• She was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2013.
• She became an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2022.
• She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2025.
• She was given the Freedom of the Borough of Calderdale in 2012.
• In 2014, she received an honorary degree from the University of Bradford.
• In 2016, she received an honorary degree from York St John University.
• In October 2016, Hannah was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of West Yorkshire.

Statistics

Records Held

Images for kids

• 

  Hannah Cockroft's gold postbox in Mount Tabor, West Yorkshire. Post boxes were painted gold to celebrate gold medal winners at the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

See also

• 2012 Olympics gold post boxes in the United Kingdom