Kadeena Cox

Kadeena Cox

Cox at the 2016 Paralympics
Personal information
Nationality	United Kingdom
Born	(1991-03-10) 10 March 1991
Sport
Country	Great Britain
Sport	Athletics, cycling
Event(s)	T38 sprint, C4 para-cycling
Club	Sale Harriers
Coached by	Paula Dunn (national) Brian Scobie (personal)
Achievements and titles
Highest world ranking	1st – 100 m (T37) 1st - 400m WR (T38)
Personal best(s)	100m sprint: 12.98s 200m sprint: 27.40s 400m sprint: 1:00.71
Medal record Representing  Great Britain Women's Paralympic athletics Summer Paralympics 2016 Rio 400 m – T38 2016 Rio 4 × 100 m – T35-38 2016 Rio 100 m – T38 IPC World Championships 2015 Doha 100 m – T37 2015 Doha 4 × 100 m – T35-38 IPC European Championships 2016 Grosseto 200 m – T38 Women's para-cycling Summer Paralympics 2016 Rio C4-5 time trial UCI Track World Championships 2016 Montichiari 500 m time trial – C4

Kadeena Cox (born 10 March 1991) is a British parasport athlete competing in T38 sprints and C4 para-cycling events.^[1] She was part of the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships and the 2016 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships, in which she won world titles in the T37 100m and C4 500m time trial respectively.^[2][3][4]

Competing for Great Britain at the 2016 Summer Paralympics, in both athletics and cycling, she won a bronze medal in the Women's 100m T38 sprint, before winning a gold medal in the Women's C4-5 cycling time trial,^[5] and another gold in the T38 400m sprint,^[6] becoming the first British Paralympian to win golds in multiple sports at the same Games since Isabel Barr in 1984 Summer Paralympics.^[7]

Personal life

Cox was born in Leeds, England in 1991 to Jamaican immigrants. Her first school was Bracken Edge Primary in Chapeltown, Leeds. She attended Wetherby High School before matriculating to Manchester Metropolitan University where she studied physiotherapy.^[8]

Athletics career

As a non-disabled athlete

Cox began sprinting competitively at the age of 15 after her hockey coach suggested she try the sport.^[9] Over the next three years she competed at regional under-17 meets gaining several podium finishes in the 100m events.^[2] In 2007 she added the 60m and 200m to her repertoire, taking bronze in the U17 events at both the Manchester Open and the England Athletics Open Championships in the 60m that year.^[2] By 2009 Cox was competing throughout the athletics season, recording personal bests of 12.60s in the 100m and 25.58s in the 200m, both at the Yorkshire & Humberside County Championships.^[2] In 2012 Cox was entering national events and recorded a new personal best in the 200m in the BUCS Championships held at the Olympic Park, a result which saw her take bronze.^[2] In 2013 she broke the 12 second barrier in the 100m for the first time, recording a time of 11.97 at the Northern Athletics Championships.^[2] She subsequently set a personal best of 11.93s for the 100m the same year.^[7] In addition to running, before her illness Cox was vying for a place on the British skeleton team.^[7][6]

On the 18 May 2014, Cox entered the Loughborough International: two days later she was rushed to hospital after showing odd symptoms and was diagnosed as having suffered a stroke.^[8] After two months of physiotherapy she recovered back to normal health and began training again.^[8] Then on 15 September 2014 she experienced burning sensations in her right arm, which over the following few days worsened to numbness in her arm and right leg and she was again taken to hospital with suspicions of a stroke. After extensive tests she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.^[8]

As a parasport sprinter

Intent on making the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, Cox was classified as both a T37 track and field athlete, to continuing her sprinting career, and a C2 track cyclist.^[10]

A month later Cox was selected for the Great Britain athletics team to compete at the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha, where she entered the T37 100m and 200m sprints. In the heats leading up to the final of the 100m sprint, Cox posted a time of 13.59s to beat the world record set by France's Mandy Francois-Elie.^[11] Later that day she ran in the 100m T37 final, taking the gold medal in a time of 13:60, beating team mate Georgina Hermitage into second place.^[12] Her final event of the championship, the T37 200m sprint, ended in controversy after she missed registration by a minute and was disqualified from the race.^[13] In June 2016, after securing a place at the 2016 Summer Paralympics as a T37 athlete, Cox was reclassified as a T38 category athlete, a classification for less-disabled athletes. This threw her hopes to race at Rio into jeopardy as Britain already fielded two other athletes, Sophie Hahn and Olivia Breen, who had posted faster times as T38 sprinters.^[14] Despite the classification change, Cox was selected for the Rio Paralympics in July 2016.^[15] At the Games she took a gold in the T38 400m, a silver in the T35-38 4x100m relay and a bronze in the T38 100m.^[6] She also set a new world record of 1:00.71 to take the gold medal in the T38 400m.^[16][17] Cox was subsequently selected as the flag-bearer for the British team at the closing ceremony.^[16]

As a para-cyclist

In September 2015 Cox entered the British National Track Championships where she took the gold medal in the C1-5 Mixed Gender Sprint Time Trial.^[18]

In March 2016, Cox represented Great Britain at the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Montichiari. Despite being reclassified as a C4 cyclist the day before the event, she still went on to win gold in the 500m time trial with a world record of 37.456s.^[4] On 1 August, Cox was named in the Great Britain team to compete at the Rio Paralympics with the potential to race in the 500m time trial (C4/C5) and the road race (C4/C5).^[19] Cox won gold in the 500m time trial in the 2016 Paralympics: her time of 34.598 seconds also set a new world record.^[6]

References

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