The five-time Paralympic champion tells Jessica Whittington how she feels a responsibility to pass on her great knowledge and experience

While Hannah Cockroft admits that coaching was not previously something she had considered, the five-time Paralympic gold medallist says she now feels it is her responsibility to help guide future generations in athletics.

The 28-year-old has enjoyed a hugely successful elite wheelchair racing career, with her CV featuring 12 world titles as well as her five Paralympic golds and multiple world records. She has no plans to retire just yet, with another Paralympic Games on the horizon and the opportunity to race at her first Commonwealth Games in 2022. However, when the curtain does come down on that part of her life, Cockroft will not be leaving the sport completely.

"I always said I didn’t want to go into coaching but actually the older I have got and the more I have been in the sport, the more I feel a responsibility to be a coach, to pass on all of the knowledge that I have got," Cockroft explains.

"We have a real limit of wheelchair racing coaches in this country and I just feel it would be a real shame for me to take all of the expertise that I have been given in my time away with me and let it die with me.

"I’ve also recently been considering head coach of British Athletics so Paula Dunn needs to watch out because I want to go for that one!"

READ MORE: Hannah Cockroft’s emotional Commonwealth Games boost

Cockroft has also come round to the idea of being a role model and inspirational figure.

"I always used to find it really awkward when people would say ‘she’s my inspiration, she made me get into the sport’. I used to think 'that’s not why I’m doing this, I don’t want to inspire people, I’m just doing it for myself'. But actually again, the older I have got the more I have realised that it’s an honour for people to be inspired by what you do, it’s a real privilege for people to look up to you," she says.

"I know growing up I would have loved someone like me to look up to so the fact that I can now be that to other girls, to other children, is amazing. I probably don’t appreciate it enough."

Looking ahead to a potential coaching career, Cockroft adds: "I see a lot of myself in these younger kids that I get to work with now so it is definitely something I want to go into and encourage some more.

"I just want opportunities for people like me. Those opportunities weren’t there until I was 15 years old so let’s work hard now to aim them at the seven or eight year olds and give them a few more years than I got."

Lead photo by Mark Shearman

» Find more from an interview with Hannah Cockroft in the December edition of AW magazine

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