Hannah Cockroft wouldn’t recommend planning a wedding and going for Paralympic gold within a month.
The Halifax ‘Hurricane’ will get married with fellow wheelchair racer Nathan Maguire just three weeks after aiming for glory at Stade de France.
Cockroft is still light years ahead of her rivals and the upcoming nuptials appear to be the biggest obstacle to adding to her seven Paralympic golds.
“People ask whether I have any advice for my younger self and mine would be not to plan a wedding in the same year as a Paralympics,” said Cockroft.
“It has been a lot, it’s really exciting but terrifying. I have got a lot of people to pay!
“It has been a nice distraction, but it has been a lot this year, with the World Championships and this and a normal season on top.
“We’ve been very busy bees. I keep reminding myself that there is no pressure on a wedding, there is no expectation, we just have to go and enjoy the day, and we’ll definitely do that.”
The 32-year-old will aim for a historic three-peat in the 100 and 800 metres, as well as harbouring hopes in the universal relay, which features four athletes with four different disabilities in an ultimate Paralympic showcase.
Organisers have revealed that 2 million tickets have been sold with a number of venues sold out, although a number of tickets remain for the athletics sessions.
Cockroft will revel in the atmosphere having won double gold in front of an empty stadium in Tokyo and questioned her purpose in the process.
“Ultimately sport is entertainment, and I really struggled in Tokyo,” she said. “ I am an entertainer, I like attention – in case you hadn’t noticed!
“Getting out on that track and having no one watching, I really struggled with. I remember vividly us being introduced to the crowd and I lifted my head and thought what is the point? Why am I here?
“It was really not an enjoyable experience for me. I’m really looking forward to getting back out there. That is why we do it, we want people to see the work that we have done, we want people to cheer for us.
“We want people to enjoy what we do. For me, I want as many eyes to see my sport as possible. Hopefully, some of those eyes will say I want to do that.”
Alongside the likes of Jonnie Peacock and David Weir, Cockroft is continuing the legacy of London 2012, although she admits that each edition since then has failed to live up to the hype of a home Games.
“I think I got thrown in the deep end with London,” said Cockroft. “That was still the biggest Games, it was the biggest crowds, the biggest attention. I learned the hard way, there was no slow build-up for me.
“The learning curve has almost been the opposite way around. I had to come away from London and in Rio, realise that London was not a normal Games. It was not what the Paralympics normally has on offer. It was quite a difficult learning curve.
“The more four-year cycles I’ve done, the more I’ve realised that the amount of attention, the media, the exposure, all of that, it almost wasn’t real, or it wasn’t what we normally get. It has been a realisation for me that you have to work hard for this, you have to work hard to get attention.”
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