Support truly
independent journalism
Kadeena Cox has spent the past decade playing the hand that her body has dealt her and this time, it gave her no choice but to fold.
Paris 2024 marks a decade since Cox was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and the last year has been perhaps her roughest yet, racked with relapses and plagued with injuries.
It all culminated in a cruel crash on the first turn of the 500m time trial, an event in which the 33-year-old was meant to win ParalympicsGB’s first medal of the Games and retain her title.
“The fact that I got here was amazing in itself,” said Cox, who posted the second-quickest time in qualifying. “I’m just gutted that I was able to ride a ride that was pretty great in the first round and then not go out there and show what I’m capable of.”
Cox only got back on the bike two weeks ago after a calf tear and was in a protective boot less than a month ago.
This time last year, she couldn’t walk after a serious relapse of MS affected her right side and it was weakness in that part of her body that proved her undoing in the final.
The world record holder looked strong in qualification but slipped out of the start gate at the start of the final.
With the right side of her body impacted, she was unable to correct her course and veered violently onto the cote d’azur to crash on the first turn.
Under UCI rules, only a mechanical issue could have seen her granted a restart and Dutch rider Caroline Groot was left to take the Briton’s title.
Cox spent nearly 30 minutes lying on the floor of the track centre in floods of tears and took more than an hour to compose herself for an interview with Channel 4.
“It was a weird one, I didn’t feel comfortable in the gate,” said Cox, who is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – which has been vital on their pathway to the Paris 2024 Games.
“With a condition like mine, riding can’t always be perfect, and it was all over the shop. It has been a rollercoaster, I guess that’s MS.”
Cox first pierced the public consciousness at Rio 2016, where she became the first British athlete in 32 years to win medals in multiple sports across athletics and cycling.
In doing so she inspired Daphne Schrager to swap the track for the velodrome and now the 23-year-old has a silver medal to her name, ParalympicsGB’s first of the Games.
Schrager started out as a 100m sprinter and competed in athletics at the 2018 Commonwealth Games but having fallen out of love with the sport, she switched to cycling having never ridden before. Schrager’s silver was presented to her by the actor Jackie Chan, a special ambassador for the International Paralympic Committee.
“I wasn’t even allowed to ride a bike as a kid,” said Schrager, who has cerebral palsy. “They thought I’d just fall off and plough into a tree.
“I’ve started from scratch, and it has been a right journey. The improvement I have made on the programme has been amazing and I’m so lucky to be one of the people on National Lottery funding.”
Schrager was devastated to see her idol Cox crash out, with the Leeds native hoping to be back for the mixed relay event.
“Kadeena was the one that got me into this,” said Schrager. “She’s a great human so she will be back, we’ll pick her up as a team and she’ll come and prove what she’s worth.”
Cox added: “The boys are going to be counting on me to go out and deliver a quick lap so I’m hoping I can get my head back in the game and go out there for them. It has been a rough week; I’ve been struggling with my mental health, so I really need to go out and speak to my psychologist and just get my head back in gear.”
::With more than £30M a week raised for Good Causes, including vital funding into elite and grassroots sport, National Lottery players support our Olympic and Paralympic athletes to live their dreams and make the nation proud, as well as providing more opportunities for people to take part in sport. To find out more visit: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk
