Kadeena Cox's Paralympic Journey.

My name's Kadeena Cox. I'm from Leeds originally, I do Athletics and Track Cycling. My disability is having Multiple Sclerosis. My life growing up was pretty fun. I grew up in a place called Chapeltown in Leeds. My Mum and my Grandma, had, my Mum had a restaurant, Caribbean restaurant. My Grandma had a Caribbean takeaway. We spent a lot of time in the shops. I grew up with my four sisters, Before my little brother and sister were born. So when I was in primary school there was five of us. Five girls. So it was super fun, like, yeah kind of a blended family. All growing up a bit hectic. And yeah it was just nice. I was a dancer at that point. And doing a lot of stuff in the community. Getting involved in Caribbean Carnivals. In terms of sport, I kind of started out as a dancer. So I danced from the age of four. Doing Jazz, Contemporary, Tap, Afro-Caribbean, Ballet. Pretty much everything, that was available, I did. Which very quickly led into being quite sporty, so I did football, I did netball, sports-hall athletics... When I got to high school, I played Hockey to quite a high level, I loved trampolining. I pretty much just did every sport available to me. Balancing sport life and education is challenging. I'll be honest I think In my A-levels I did slack a little bit too much.. Trying to work hard to make sure I was in a great position for my sport. Which then meant my A-levels didn't quite go to plan. When I went to university I thought I'd focus solely on Athletics. I probably quit Hockey when I was 17-18. I thought i'd focus just on Athletics And it kind of got to a point where me and my coach realised that my potential probably laid in being a 400m runner. And then yeah, as I was kind of working my way up and about to do a season of 400m running. That's when I got ill. I think the way in which I dealt with my illness was with sport. So it wasn't a case of you know thinking my dreams are over and having to re-focus. It was literally my sport is going to keep me focussed throughout this transition period. And then when I was diagnosed with the MS, that was another blow... And I knew it that it was more of a long term health condition.. rather than just like a you have a stroke and you move on. I was going to say it took me a little longer, it took me an extra day longer (laughs) And then I started fundraising to get me back into sport. So me and my coach at the time before he started coaching me worked with the Paralympic pathways up in Scotland. So he kind of knew the disability world. So he was quite content to just crack on. So we worked really well together. Having watched some of my coaches athletes at the London Games I was excited to be part of the Paralympic team. And then Cycling it was just by chance really. The lady who was helping me with my talent transfer to Skeleton put me in contact with the Paralympic equivalent... She offered me canoeing or Track-Cycling, and I was like I can't swim so I'm not doing canoeing. So I just thought well, It's a clean slate. At that point I was struggling with Athletics... because I knew how good I was before and I was always comparing myself to old Kadeena. Where as Cycling was just a clean slate. And I seemed to walk in and I was relatively good, so I was like... I like this, I'm quite good here, I'm going to stick around. But then when I did get into Cycling it was, you know you need to buy a bike, you need to buy these shoes... And it's just expensive, like bikes are not cheap. Getting a decent bike was quite hard but my mum helped me we did loads of fundraising. So a few different companies basically put funds together for me to get my first bike. But the Velodromes quite far away and I wasn't living in Manchester at that point. Because I moved back home after getting ill. So that was a struggle just trying to get over there. So once I'd got the bike, it was navigating all the other obstacles. I've got a few people that I know that have transferred into Cycling that were ok at Athletics... That are really excelling in Cycling. And it's the same I've got a friend that's gone from Athletics into canoeing. So just kind of you know, just trying out different events and seeing what works best for your body and your impairment. The difference when you find something that works for you and you start to progress the way you think you have the potential to. It's so rewarding. I absolutely loved it. I've been in the sport now for Donkey's There was potential for me to just go well I did Athletics before, that's what I'm going to do now. Which could have been, I'm doing ok at Athletics, but I am also great at Cycling... So I could have really limited myself there, I think just trying a few different things out is always a great shout. inspiring the next generation, trying to get more diversity within Cycling... Cos for me, representation is key. If you look at Cycling, I am the only Black Gold medalist across Olympic and Paralympic. If anyone looks to the sport they don't really see anyone that looks like them. So it's hard as like a ten year old to think; I'm going to get into cycling, there's that person that looks like me. And even when I cycle around my area, kids look at me and they kinda giggle like, why is she wearing all that Lycra stuff? I absolutely love representing my city, I love representing the area that I've come from. Doesn't matter where you're from, doesn't matter where your background is, your upbringing. You can still go out and achieve amazing things. I guess I push the boundaries just to be kind of like you know If I can do it you can do it too. And hopefully do it a lot better. There's a lot of us Leeds Athletes that do great on the Olympic and Paralympic scene so... I feel like i'm part of something pretty big. I think the best thing is the fact that I thrive under pressure. And going into major championships and going into a Paralympic Games. People are looking at me as a person to beat... And for me that's exciting, I'm like ok, you wanna beat me? Well I wanna beat me also. So I'm gonna go quick. So I feel like I'm setting myself up to hopefully create an amazing legacy. And I think that's pretty cool, being Kadeena Cox. (laughs)