Kadeena Cox on how the Paralympics is a chance to learn, as well as compete
Kadeena Cox will be arriving at the Paris Paralympic games with two mindsets.
As a Team GB athlete, she’ll be focused on winning her races in the sprint and cycling categories; but as a qualified physiotherapist, she can’t wait to see how disabled athletes from across the world have adapted to become top of their game.
The 33-year-old tells Women’s Health that one of her most memorable moments from her time in the athletes’ villages at the Rio and Toyko games was when she spent time with the other competitors and their teams, discussing and learning how they have overcome physical challenges to make it to the starting line with the best in the world.
She says: ‘It’s really interesting to just have conversations with people from different nations and learn about how they train and the access they've got to equipment. At Rio 2016 I remember we ended up chilling and chatting with the Zimbabwean rowing team.
‘For us [Team GB], we've got all the equipment in the world, and we throw in different bits of kit - carbon this and that - and they’re struggling to be able to even put a boat together.
‘It wasn't like an “exciting” moment, but it was so memorable in terms of how it really made me see a different side of life and how privileged we are.
‘And for me, as a physio, I find it really interesting because you see impairments and disabilities that you wouldn't necessarily see in this country because we either don't have the diseases that cause them, or they're just treated so differently because we've got access to the NHS.
‘If you need an amputation, if you need a certain type of prosthesis, if you need different bits of equipment, we have got such easy access to it, whereas in other countries they don't necessarily have that so they make do with whatever they can get hold of.
‘So for me, it’s really interesting to see the different impairments and speak to different people and see what it's like to live as a disabled person in a different country.’
Kadeena doesn’t have a physical disability, but she was diagnosed with MS in 2014. She competes in the T38 sprint [athletes with movement and coordination affected to a low degree in the lower trunk and legs, down one side of the body, or the whole body] and C4 para-cycling [people with lower limb impairments or issues with lower limb functionality] categories.
She's highly decorated, with seven World Championship gold medals and six Paralympic medals. At Rio 2016 she won three medals in athletics (gold in the T38 400m, silver in the 4x100m and bronze in the 100m), and won a gold medal in cycling with victory in the C4-5 time trial. It made her the first British Paralympian for 32 years to win medals in two different sports.
Four years later in Tokyo, she picked up two gold medals at the velodrome in the Mixed 750m Team sprint C1-C5 along with Jaco van Gass and Jody Cundy and the 500m time trial C4-C5. She went on to compete in the T38 400 metres where she missed out on winning a medal, finishing in fourth place
Kadeena’s road to the winner's podium began shortly after she was born. ‘I actually walked at seven months old,’ she laughs. ‘I was that kid that loved running around. Someone was like, “Okay, we need to burn this girl's energy”, so I started dance lessons at the age of four, and then just got into every school sport you can think of. I was good at everything, I know it sounds big-headed! But I was just that kid, sport was just my thing.’
She adds that of her six siblings, she’s the ‘token sporty one, the rest are all musical.’
Kadeena tells WH that Multiple Sclerosis presents several challenges when preparing for a competition, as it can be triggered by fatigue and stress. She adds that she had a relapse last August, the day after she won gold in the C4 500m time trial at the Cycling World Championships. She retained her title, but admits that the ‘intensity, stress and the pressure of going in so hard created a perfect storm to have a relapse’.
This means that keeping the right balance is key, and Kadeena’s team are constantly monitoring her energy levels, as well as her performance metrics. ‘We really have to try and manage the fatigue levels, how much I’m resting, what I'm fueling on,’ she says. ‘With training, we focus on quality over quantity a lot of the time, and if anything's not going great then myI coach will say “let’s end the session here”. So nothing's ever set in stone for me, we are always playing things by ear.’
Competing in two very different sports also presents Kadeena’s team with challenges as they strike the balance between the types of strength needed for the specific disciplines. ‘Essentially, you're using the same muscles but in different ways,’ she says. ‘Energy system wise, they’re a little bit similar in that you’re getting into the lactic acid threshold area. With cycling you want pure strength, whereas with sprinting you need plyometric strength. It can be a little bit challenging to juggle it, but I've got a pretty amazing team, and we've figured a way to make it work as best as we can.’
One thing that never changes, however, is how Kadeena fuels her races. ‘I'm pretty controlling with what I eat, and I like to have the same thing every time. I literally have porridge and Biscoff spread before every race whether it's at nine o'clock in the morning or at nine o'clock at night!’
It's Kadeena's experience of living with MS and measuring her success on progressive milestones of success which partly inspired her to team up with LEGO.
She says: 'I think one of the key things for young girls is to not feel like they have to be perfect. Social media creates this world where everyone feels like they have to be perfect; sharing the perfect picture, living the perfect lifestyle... And I think it's such a damaging thing for young girls in this generation to see.
'I think it's important for people like me and athletes to be showing that it's not about the final result, and that you should celebrate daily progress.
'For me, with my MS, some days I have to stop training, because it's more detrimental to me than to continue and finish. But if I've done a small session in the morning, I might not have finished my full day, but I've made some steps, and that's some kind of progress and is really important.
'I want to continue to work with the LEGO Group on their Unstoppable Project and try to break down the barriers for young girls so they don't feel like they constantly have to live up to an expectation of being perfect.'
With Paris just days away, Kadeena and her team have been focused on ‘fine tuning’ after months of gruelling training. It’s involved lots of partial squats and lifts to give her the explosive reactions she needs to get ahead of her competitors, and ‘getting used to running at race pace’ on the athletics track. ‘I’m doing more standing laps and trying to execute the start gate and get in that first quarter really quick,’ she adds.
This will be Kadeena’s third games, and she’s heading there looking forward to the competition and the atmosphere, some of which will be provided by her ‘mum and dad, four or five sisters and a couple of friends’.
She says: ‘I'm looking forward to it. I really want to just enjoy this one. My first one was a bit of a whirlwind and I was here, there and everywhere, running between two different sports. The second one happened during COVID, so it was very different. This one I just really want to enjoy it as much as I can. Obviously I want to do well, but I also want to enjoy the experience.’
Visit lego.com/team-unstoppable to be inspired by Team Unstoppable and to find creative play opportunities near you.
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