Hannah Cockroft storms to her ninth Paralympic title at Paris 2024

By Milly McEvoy at Stade de France

'Hurricane' Hannah Cockroft stormed to her ninth Paralympic title at Paris 2024

Cockroft was unmatched in the women’s 800m final, finishing 7.66 seconds ahead of teammate Kare Adenegan to claim her second gold of the Games.

Performing in front of a packed Paris crowd, the 32-year-old got that London 2012 feeling all over again.

“I just couldn’t wait to get out here,” said Cockroft, 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.

“The atmosphere was amazing, I could feel the noise following me around, it’s like being back in London, I love it.

“It is just amazing. This is how many people love para sport. This is what we want to see, give us the opportunity to race."

Cockroft has long been a Paralympic figurehead as the nation's most decorated track and field athlete, a 16-time world champion to boot.

But she wants British fans to back her for the four years in between the Games with the other major Championships often taking place in front of small crowds.

“It doesn’t end here, we have World and European Championships year on year, it’s not a four-year gap for us.

“Find your favourite athletes online, give them a follow, go and support them because this is what we live for.

“I don’t want to wait 12 years again – I can’t, I’m too old!

Cockroft clocked a time of 1:55.44 to continue her stunning unbeaten record at the Paralympics.

Despite the roar inside the stadium, Cockroft revealed she was still able to pick out the voice of fiancé Nathan Maguire.

Fellow wheelchair racer Maguire narrowly missed out on joining her on the podium with two fourth-place and one fifth-place finishes across his three events in Paris with the pair are set to marry in less than a month’s time.

She added: “Nath’s voice was the last one I heard. It means so much, he understands what goes into that performance and he knows I won’t be happy with that time at all!

“He sees every session, he sees everything I do to make sure that can happen.

“I came off and he said ‘Kare went out well, you didn’t get a great start’, I was like ‘alright!’.

“Three weeks and five days until we get married, so now the hard work begins. I just want to sleep but hopefully I’ll go home, have an amazing wedding and have a great life.”

Cockroft won ParalympicsGB’s sixth gold in athletics at Paris 2024, meaning she got a second chance to ring the stadium's victory bell that will soon move to its permanent home of Notre Dame Cathedral.

While her future in the sport remains uncertain, she wanted to savour the moment as the crowd helped her celebrate a ninth gold.

She added: “I rang the bell nine times for nine gold medals. It might be the last chance I have to ring the bell so you have to do it.”

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