Inside a sweltering Paris velodrome, the heat raised to the max in the hope of world records (and they duly came tumbling), ParalympicsGB’s medal count started with silvers for Daphne Schrager and the pairing of Stephen Bate and Christopher Latham on the tandem. But there was a broken heart for gold-medal favourite Kadeena Cox, who fell at the first bend in her final.
Cox, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis after a stroke in May 2014, was racing in the 500m time trial – two laps of the track against the clock – in the C4-5 category and had been second fastest in the morning’s qualifying races.
This meant she would cycle fifth out of six athletes in the afternoon, directly after France’s Marie Patouillet, who was roared around with the fervour of a thousand Tricolores, a giant cardboard model of her head waved from the stands. Assured a medal, Patouillet lofted her bike above her head. But that heady atmosphere dropped to a sudden, dazed silence as Cox struggled out of the blocks, wobbled, failed to pick up speed and slid to the ground before the first bend.
As British officials rushed to help, the judges watched a replay to see if there had been a mechanical failure that would allow her a restart. But there would be no second chance and a distraught Cox sobbed in the track centre.
It comes on top of six months blighted by injury, the last a calf tear she picked up in training six weeks ago.
With terrible timing, Cox had to wait to speak to Channel 4 while the medal ceremony for her race took place behind her. “It was a weird one,” she said. “I didn’t feel comfortable in the gate and then when I started … my right side is my weak side and with a condition like mine riding can’t always be perfect. I think I just overcompensated and couldn’t balance on my weaker side. I was all over the shop.
“I’m not great, if I’m honest, but I guess that’s sport. I went down on my knee, which is a little bit sore. I’m just emotionally a bit all over the place.”
She is due to return to the velodrome on Sunday to defend the mixed team sprint crown with Jody Cundy and Jaco van Gass – though there will be a mental mountain to climb first.
“The boys are going to be counting on me to be able to get out there and deliver a quick lap. So I’m hoping I can get my head back in the game and go out there for them. As I say, it’s been a rough week. I’ve been struggling with my mental health, so I really need to go back and try … to speak to my psych probably, who’s messaged me a million times, and just get my head back in gear because it’s all right letting yourself down but I really don’t want to let the boys down.”
There was, though, happiness for Schrager, who raced against China’s Wang Xiaomei in the final of the 3,000m C1-3 individual pursuit (12 laps of the track, with two riders starting on opposite sides and the objective of catching their opponent or completing the distance in the fastest time). Both had broken the world record in qualifying, but Wang was dominant in the final, knocking three seconds off her earlier effort.
Schrager, at her first Games, grew up on a farm in Wiltshire, where there were no opportunities for a girl with cerebral palsy to jump on a bike. She was a talented sprinter, coming fifth in the T35 100m final at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, but became bored of athletics. She joined the British cycling programme after her A-Levels, was a “Bambi on ice” as she describes herself, but came back for more, the empty roads during the Covid pandemic a blessing. “There’s a whole army behind us to get to this point, it is everyone’s medal,” she said afterwards. A medal presented by a dapper looking Jackie Chan.
And there was another medal for Bate, at 47 the oldest British rider, competing at his third Games. Bate, who was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa in 2011, picked up silver in the men’s B individual pursuit alongside pilot Chris Latham. They flew through qualifying but knew that their biggest rivals were Tristan Bangma and Patrick Bos, and the Dutch pair duly took gold in a powerful final performance.
