This month, one of Britain’s most impressive Paralympians begins her journey to Paris 2024. Kadeena Cox is a 12-time gold medallist in cycling and para-athletics, and also holds the world record. We meet in London, a few weeks before the start of the Paralympics and before she returns to training after injury.
She is extremely personable and extremely talkative. She is looking forward to Paris, especially because the venue’s proximity will make it easier for her friends and family to attend. “It feels like everyone I know is coming,” she says, laughing. “People randomly walk past in my neighbourhood and tell me they’re coming! But the idea that we’ll have more fans there is great. Of course I’m biased, but I feel like the British fans are the best in the world.”
Quite apart from the fact that there might be more Union Jacks in the crowd, these sporting tournaments, like Paris itself, always seem like a good idea. “Honestly,” she says wistfully, “the Olympics and Paralympics are unlike any other competition you’ll ever take part in. They’re so special.”
There was a time when Cox feared she would never compete in either sport. She began competing in sprint events at age 15. In 2014, at 25, she suffered a stroke while training for the Loughborough Internationals. Months of physiotherapy seemed to be making her well again before strange tingling and numbness in her body led to a devastating diagnosis: multiple sclerosis.
It was a blow that would have devastated many, but Cox showed a fighting spirit that you knew was an integral part of her character within minutes of meeting her. “After my diagnosis, one of my first thoughts was to get back into sport,” she says. “I think I was still in the hospital bed when I looked up how to become a Para-athlete. It was a big change, but I wasn’t so interested in what it would be like, I was just interested in doing it.”
Cox exudes a cheerful lightheartedness that belies her sheer endurance. In her new life as an athlete after her diagnosis, she has achieved incredible success, becoming a world record holder and world champion, as well as a Paralympic champion. But it hasn’t been a walk in the park. “I really struggled because even though I was ranked higher, I was slowing down and constantly comparing myself to the old version of myself,” she admits. “It was like I had to mourn that side of me and realise that that version of me no longer existed.”
Her remarkable second act was underlined by the double-edged sword of naysayers. She admits she’s lost count of the number of people who have told her she won’t make the team, that she can’t achieve anything, that she’ll never be considered a top athlete again. “When someone tells me I can’t do something, it just lights this fire inside of me,” she says. “Don’t tell me I can’t do something, because I’m going to go out there and prove you wrong.”
This driving force that drives her started in her childhood. “I think I’ve always been a pretty strong-willed person. My mom literally says I ran before I could walk,” she says, adding that her strong single mother still has a big influence on her. “She had no support, so she basically had to be an absolute slav. Growing up in that environment instilled in me the drive to be able to overcome things. If I couldn’t do something, I kept doing it until I succeeded.”
Despite this instinctive determination, she admits that before her disability, she didn’t know “how strong I could be.” “I always tell myself: Even though it’s hard right now, Kadeena, you’ve been through this before – you can get through it.”
One surprising hurdle she has to overcome as a para-athlete is disbelief in her disability. “People just don’t believe I have one,” she says with a playful shrug that betrays a hint of sad exhaustion. Her MS is an invisible illness, but one that nonetheless leaves her incredibly disabled. She often loses control of her bladder or feeling on one side of her body and regularly relies on a wheelchair or walking stick. “I experience this all the time on social media: people commenting on my videos and telling me I’m faking it,” she says. “I don’t think it’s so bad anymore because I use it as an opportunity to educate people now.”
Cox is passionate about using her platform to combat misconceptions about her disease and to be a support to other people with MS. She says the messages she receives, particularly from young or recently diagnosed people, as well as those who want to continue exercising, are one of the highlights and most important aspects of her job. The positive impact she can have feels very similar to the way she describes the unifying power of sport.
“It’s a celebration of different things: how amazing our bodies can be, how different they can be, what happens when you challenge yourself.” She smiles and adds: “I just think it’s so beautiful that we can have the Olympics and Paralympics, especially now when there’s so much negativity in the news. This positive vibe at the moment shows how much we can stick together. Everyone is behind it.”
At these Paralympics, everyone will surely be behind Kadeena Cox, just like the spectators from her own neighborhood.
Kadeena Cox is an ambassador for Team Samsung Galaxy and embodies Samsung’s “Open Always Wins” spirit for Paris 2024.
