Kadeena Cox eager to erase bittersweet feelings in Paris | Paralympic Games Paris 2024

KAdeena Cox is the big name on the opening day of the track cycling programme and she has every chance of opening Britain's medal tally at the Velodrome – and indeed winning the first gold of the Games. But the build-up to her third Paralympics has been anything but smooth.

The 33-year-old, who broke records in Rio with gold medals on the athletics track and velodrome, tore her calf muscle last winter and then suffered an Achilles tendon injury. She recovered to successfully defend her C4 500m time trial title at the Para Cycling Track World Championships in March, but tore her calf again in training six weeks ago.

But now she's back on her bike, aiming for a world record or two and a few gold medals. She'll kick things off with the women's C4-5 500m time trial on Thursday, where she'll try to defend the crown she won in Tokyo.

“It’s been a tough road to get here so I’m really pleased to have been selected,” she told PA Media.

“The training has developed in the right direction and I still feel that, even as I get older, I have the skills [win a] Medal. Usually it's just a matter of whether my body is in one piece.

“When you go to a competition, you usually know you've done the work and the hard part is over. Then you just have to go out there and show what you've accomplished. Competing is the easy part.”

Cox was a hockey player and then a track sprinter, as well as a skeleton athlete. She was determined to win a place in the British Olympic squad for the Winter Games. However, after a stroke in May 2014 and the subsequent diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, she turned to parasports.

Two years later, she won four medals in Rio (gold in the velodrome and gold, silver and bronze on the track), and two gold medals followed in Tokyo. There, she was relegated to fourth place in the 400m track, hampered by tendonitis in both heels and eating disorders. The scratch still itches, although she was not selected for athletics this time.

“Tokyo is the thing that still haunts me a little bit,” she said. “I know if I had a little more time I could have done what I needed to do. Even though I won two gold medals, I probably think more about the fact that I didn't quite make it in athletics. That's a bittersweet feeling. I was hoping to rectify that with these Games.

“I'm just a somewhat fragile athlete. That's unfortunate, but that's the nature of a sport like athletics.”

Cox will also be cycling on Sunday, defending her mixed team sprint title alongside Jody Cundy and Jaco van Gass. And she's doing all this despite the fact that she's currently suffering a relapse of her MS, which has further affected the right side of her body. “People have told me that I'll never be able to do two sports at once, that I'll never be able to do this, that and the other,” she said.

“And I think to myself, 'Cool, let's do it,' and that motivates me even more.

“When I'm under pressure, I just see it as an opportunity to show how great I can be.”

The cycling team has high hopes for more medals on Thursday with Daphne Schrager, the world champion in the individual pursuit C2, who is a strong contender for a medal in the individual pursuit C1-3 in her first Paralympics, as well as the tandem duo of Steve Bate and his pilot Chris Latham.

The pair, who have been cycling together for two years, won silver at the 2024 Para Cycling World Championships, finishing second behind Dutchmen Tristan Bangma and Patrick Bos, who are also considered their main rivals in the men's individual pursuit B.

After the British cycling team had their most successful Paralympics in Tokyo with 24 medals, including at least one for each rider, the target for Paris is 14-20. The team includes seven reigning Paralympic champions and the mood in the camp is said to be boisterous. The team will stay close to the course but will move to the athletes' village in the second week when the cycling events move to the road.