Nine-time Paralympic Champion Hannah Cockroft named CBE
New Years Honours
Photo: Peter Milsom
Nine-time Paralympic Champion Hannah Cockroft (https://hannahcockroft.com/) has been awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for her contributions to athletics.
The honour comes after another hugely successful Paralympic Games for Cockroft as she retained both the 100m and 800m T34 titles in Paris.
On being named a CBE, Halifax-born Cockroft said:
The letter was totally unexpected. I remember when I got my MBE and my OBE letters, they came in like September so this time I kind of just went ‘it's someone else's turn and that’s fine’ so I totally didn’t expect it.
“It was the best end to just the most amazing year and everything else was kind of planned. I knew I was going to the World Championships, I knew I was going to get to the Paralympics and I knew I was getting married but you can’t ever expect to be on the New Years Honours List so it's a perfect end to the most chaotic but amazing year.”
Cockroft’s two gold medals at the Paris games brought her total tally to nine as she retained the 100m T34 title for a fourth consecutive games, whilst her 800m T34 victory gave her the title for a third consecutive time.
Her success at the Paris games made history as her 100m T34 Gold medal helped ParalympicGB break the record for most champions in a single day for the country.
On her individual success and the Paralympic games, 32-year-old Cockroft said:
Paris was everything I wanted it to be and more. I think I had put a lot of pressure on Paris in my head, since it got announced everyone was saying it’ll be the next London. It was absolutely amazing and after the 800m final, I remember, you finish the race and you get rushed from here to there, there’s not that much time and I just pulled myself back from it for a minute and I just looked around and I thought, I just want a minute to remember this.
In May last year, Cockroft also had a successful World Championships as she claimed gold medals in both the 100m and 800m T34 in Kobe, Japan.
2024 was therefore a monumental year for Cockroft and Para Athletics as it was one of the few years that two championships took place.
Photo: Peter Milsom
On last year and what it meant for her, Cockroft said:
“I feel like 2024 is going to take some beating; to be fair I say that a lot, but there was just so much going on last year that I don’t think I’ll ever get the opportunity to redo it.”
“We’ve never had two championships in one year before, so that was a massive challenge so to come out the other side having achieved what I achieved was everything that I wanted to do and needed to do.”
Since the new year, the CBE recipient has returned to training as she looks to prepare herself for a quieter’ year after the busyness of her 2024 season.
Cockroft is aiming towards competing at the World Championships in India in September as she looks ahead to a potential fifth Paralympics in 2028.
On her future within Para Athletics and the LA 2028 Paralympics, Cockroft said:
Everyone keeps saying ‘you’re so close to 10, and it is so tempting, so yeah I want to get to the next games, and I keep saying this year is going to be a quiet year, but it’s not, we’re off to Dubai in two weeks for seven weeks of training.
It's taken me a little bit of time to come away and think do I want to do this four years as it is a long time and a big commitment, but I’m not done. I'm not satisfied with what I put down in Paris.