Kadeena Cox

Kadeena Cox, MBE (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]

Kadeena Cox
MBE
Cox at the 2016 Paralympics
Personal information
Nationality Great Britain
Born (1991-03-10) 10 March 1991
Leeds, West Yorkshire, England
Sport
CountryGreat Britain
SportAthletics, cycling
Event(s)T38 sprint, C4 para-cycling
ClubSale Harriers
Coached byPaula Dunne (national)
Brian Scobie (personal)
Achievements and titles
Highest world ranking1st – 100 m (T37)
1st - 400m WR (T38)
Personal best(s)100m sprint: 12.98s
200m sprint: 27.15s
400m sprint: 1:00.71
Medal record
Representing  Great Britain
Women's para athletics
Paralympic Games
2016 Rio400 m – T38
2016 Rio4 × 100 m – T35-38
2016 Rio100 m – T38
World Championships
2015 Doha100 m – T37
2015 Doha4 × 100 m – T35-38
2017 London400 m – T38
2017 London100 m – T38
2017 London200 m – T38
European Championships
2016 Grosseto200 m – T38
Women's para cycling
Paralympic Games
2016 RioC4-5 time trial
Track World Championships
2016 Montichiari500 m time trial – C4

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 at the 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 studies physiotherapy.[8]

She appeared on Celebrity Mastermind in December 2016, scoring just 3 points with her specialist subject Arsenal F.C., and no points at all in the general knowledge round. She won the second Celebrity Robot Wars 2016 episode later that month with her collaboration with Ellis Ware (who drove Pulsar in the preceding regular series), with a robot called Kadeena Machina, a robot with a vertical disc, which won all four of its fights, the only robot to do so.[9] In 2017 she took part in the British television winter sports show The Jump, but had her funding suspended whilst on the show due to the amount of injuries contestants sometimes suffer.[10] In April 2018, Kadeena took part in The Great Celebrity Bakeoff on Channel4 in aid of Standup to Cancer [Episode 5/5]

Sporting career

As an able bodied athlete

Cox began sprinting competitively at the age of 15 after her hockey coach suggested she try the sport.[11] 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.[6][7]

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.[12]

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.[13] 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.[14] 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.[15] 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.[16] Despite the classification change, Cox was selected for the Rio Paralympics in July 2016.[17] 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.[18][19] Cox was subsequently selected as the flag-bearer for the British team at the closing ceremony.[18]

Cox was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to athletics.[20]

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.[21]

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).[22] 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]

Awards

In March 2017, Cox was awarded the Sporting Equals Sportswoman of the Year at the Lycamobile British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards (BEDSAs) held at the London Hilton on Park Lane.[23][24][25]

References
  1. "Cox, Kadeena". paralympic.org. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  2. "Kadeena Cox". thepowerof10.info. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  3. "Olympics dream of Leeds sprinter with MS". Yorkshire Evening Post. 23 October 2014. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  4. Gales, Aaron (17 March 2016). "Golden start for Great Britain at UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships". British Cycling. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
  5. "Rio Paralympics 2016: Kadeena Cox wins time trial to add to athletics gold". BBC Sport. 10 September 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  6. "Kadeena Cox: Briton wants to compete at 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympics". bbc.co.uk. 23 September 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  7. "Rio Paralympics 2016: Kadeena Cox's tireless pursuit of sprint and cycling glory". bbc.co.uk. 14 September 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  8. "Local greats raise money for local girl, Kadeena Cox". wetherbylions.org. 7 July 2015. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  9. Harp, Justin (29 December 2016). "Robot Wars is rocked by a fix scandal. Yes, really". Digital Spy. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
  10. "The Jump: Kadeena Cox has UK Sport funding suspended". BBC Sport. 4 January 2017. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  11. "Cox, Kadeena". IPC. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  12. "Leeds sprinter with MS determined to turn Rio dream into reality". Yorkshire Evening Post. 25 September 2015. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  13. "Results – Women's 100m T37 Round 1 Heat 2/2". IPC. 24 October 2015. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  14. Hudson, Elizabeth (22 October 2015). "IPC World Athletics: Hannah Cockroft wins gold in Doha". BBC Sport. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  15. Bloom, Ben (29 October 2015). "Kadeena Cox suffers harsh disqualification at IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha". The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
  16. "Kadeena Cox: Paralympic dual competitor has athletics category changed". BBC Sport. 10 June 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
  17. "Rio 2016: Jonnie Peacock in ParalympicsGB track and field team". BBC Sport. 26 July 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  18. "Kadeena Cox chosen as Great Britain's flag bearer for Paralympic closing ceremony". itv.com. 18 September 2016. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  19. Morgan, Liam (15 September 2016). "Cox adds women's 400m T38 Paralympic title to track cycling gold medal with world record display at Rio 2016" (PDF). paralympic.org. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
  20. "No. 61803". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2016. p. N17.
  21. Hobro, Scott; O'Brien, Tom (25 September 2015). "Katy Marchant wins first British title with sprint triumph at British Cycling National Track Championships". britishcycling.org.uk. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  22. "Rio Paralympics: Kadeena Cox confirmed in two sports". BBC Sport. 1 August 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  23. Hinds, Rodney (23 March 2017). "British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards honoured Sir Mo". Voice Online. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  24. Trehan, Dev (19 March 2017). "Sir Mo Farah and Kadeena Cox honoured at BEDSAs". Sky Sports News. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  25. "Mo Farah & Kadeena Cox win British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards awards". BBC Sport. 18 March 2017. Retrieved 1 April 2018.

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