Hannah Cockroft hasn’t got to where she is by choosing the easy route. The Paralympic T34 100m and 800m champion, and the world record holder in the T34 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m, is peppering up her Paris experience by throwing one of the most stressful life events into the mix. “You know when people ask if you have any advice for your younger self,” she says. “It would be: ‘Don’t plan a wedding the same year as a Paralympic Games.’”
Cockroft’s husband-to-be is her fellow ParalympicsGB athlete Nathan Maguire, who competes in the T54 400m, 800m and 1500m and once asked for her autograph at a meet-the-athlete event before later throwing it in the bin. The pair will marry three weeks after the end of the Games. “We’ve been very busy bees and I just keep reminding myself there is no pressure on a wedding, no expectation, you’ve just got to go there and enjoy the day,” Cockroft says. The pressure comes now.
