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Four-time Paralympic champion Kadeena Cox insists “competing is the easy bit” as she bids to win Great Britain’s maiden medal of Paris 2024 following a series of injury setbacks.
The dual-sport athlete will focus solely on track cycling at the third Games of her career having excelled on both the bike and as a sprinter across Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
Cox, who has multiple sclerosis, tore a calf muscle late last year and then suffered a recurrence of the Achilles issues which hindered her athletics performance in Japan, prior to another recent fitness setback.
The 33-year-old could secure her country’s first podium place in France when she goes for a third successive C4-5 women’s time trial title on the opening day of competition on Thursday before attempting to defend the mixed team sprint crown with Jody Cundy and Jaco van Gass on Sunday.
“It feels like it’s been a hard journey to get to this point so I’m really happy to have that selection,” she told the PA news agency.
“Training has been moving in the right direction and I still feel, as much as I’m getting older, I’ve got the capabilities to be able to medal. It’s normally just whether my body is in one piece.
“When you get to a competition, most times you know you’ve done the work and the hard bit’s been done and all you’ve got to do then is go out and show what you’ve done. Competing is the easy bit.”
In addition to her three cycling titles, Cox won 400m gold, 4x100m relay silver and 100m bronze on her Games debut in Brazil.
She subsequently fell agonisingly short on the athletics track three years ago, finishing fourth in the 400m amid tendonitis in both heels and a battle with disordered eating.
“Tokyo is the one that haunts me still a little bit,” she said.
“I know if I’d had a bit more time, I would have been able to do what I needed to.
“As much as I got two golds out there, I probably think more about the fact that I didn’t quite nail it in the athletics.
“It is that one that feels bitter-sweet. I was hoping to rectify that with this Games.
“I’m just a little bit of a fragile athlete. It is unfortunate but it’s the nature of the beast with doing a sport like athletics.”
Leeds-born Cox also had another relapse in her MS, a condition which can affect the brain and spinal cord, last year which weakened the right-hand side of her body.
“I’ve had people tell me that I’ll never be able to do two sports, I’ll never be able to do this, that and the other,” she added.
“And I’m like, ‘cool, let’s do this’, and it just spurs me on that little bit more.
“When there’s pressure there, I just see it as an opportunity to show how great I can be with God’s support.”
