Kadeena Cox is the big name on the opening day of the track-cycling programme and she has every chance of opening the Great Britain medal account – and, indeed, winning the first gold of the Games – at the velodrome. But the buildup to her third Paralympics has been far from smooth.
The 33-year-old, who ripped up the record book by winning gold in Rio on the athletics track and in the velodrome, tore a calf muscle last winter and then sustained an achilles injury. She recovered to successfully defend her C4 500m time trial title at the Para Cycling Track World Championships in March but picked up another calf tear in training six weeks ago.
Now, though, she is back on her bike and has set her sights on a world record or two as well as a couple of gold medals, beginning with the women’s C4-5 500m time trial on Thursday, where she will be aiming to keep the crown she won in Tokyo.
“It’s been a hard journey to get to this point so I’m really happy to have that selection,” she told PA Media.
“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 [win a] 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. All you’ve got to do then is go out and show what you’ve done. Competing is the easy bit.”
Cox was a hockey player and then a track sprinter, with a sideline in the skeleton, determined to win a place in Britain’s Winter Olympic squad, but after a stroke in May 2014 and a subsequent diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, she turned her hand to para-sport.
Two years later, she won four medals in Rio (gold in the velodrome and a gold, silver and bronze on the track) and two gold medals followed in Tokyo. There, she was pipped into fourth place in the 400m on the track, hindered by tendinitis in both heels and suffering from disordered eating. It is still a scratch that itches, despite not being selected in athletics this time around.
“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, I probably think more about the fact that I didn’t quite nail it in the athletics. It is that one that feels bittersweet. 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.”
Cox will also cycle on Sunday, defending the mixed team sprint crown with Jody Cundy and Jaco van Gass. All this on top of dealing with a relapse of her MS, which further affected the right 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 said.
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“And I’m like: ‘Cool, let’s do this,’ and it just spurs me on that little bit more.
“When there’s pressure, I just see it as an opportunity to show how great I can be.”
The cycling team have high hopes for further medals on Thursday with Daphne Schrager, the C2 individual pursuit world champion, a strong contender for a medal in the C1-3 individual pursuit at her first Paralympics, and the tandem duo of Steve Bate and his pilot, Chris Latham.
After the British cycling team had their most successful Paralympics in Tokyo, with 24 medals, at least one for every rider, the target for Paris is between 14 and 20. The team includes seven reigning Paralympic champions and the mood in the camp is said to be buoyant, with the team staying close to the track, though they will move into the athletes’ village in the second week when the cycling events shift over to the road.
