hairAdina Cox emerged as a big contender on the opening day of track cycling and had a good chance of winning the red, white and blue in the velodrome and, indeed, her first gold medal of the Games, but her preparations for her third Paralympic Games have not been smooth sailing.
The 33-year-old, who won gold medals and set new records on the track and velodrome in Rio, ruptured a calf muscle last winter and then injured her Achilles tendon. She recovered to successfully defend her C4 500m time trial title at the Para-cycling Track World Championships in March, but ruptured her calf again in training six weeks ago.
But now she's back on the bike, aiming to set a world record or two and maybe win a few gold medals in Thursday's women's C4-5 500m time trial as she attempts to defend the crown she won in Tokyo.
“I'm really happy to have been selected as it's been a tough journey to get to this point,” she told PA Media. “My training is going in the right direction and I feel I have the ability to win a medal even at my age, it's just a matter of being fit and healthy.”
“Usually when I go into a competition I know I've worked hard and the hard part is over. Now I just have to go out there and show what I've done. Entering a competition is the easy part.”
Cox began her career as a hockey player, then a sprinter and skeleton athlete, with the aim of joining the British Winter Olympic team, but after suffering a stroke in May 2014 and being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, she turned to parasport.
Two years later, she won four medals in Rio (gold in cycling, gold, silver and bronze in track) and two more golds at the Corona Games in Tokyo, where she struggled with tendinitis in both heels and an eating disorder and finished fourth in the 400 meters on the track. This time she wasn't selected for track and field, but it's still an itchy scar.
“The Tokyo Games are still bothering me a little bit,” she said. “I think if I had more time I could have done what I needed to do. I think more about the fact that things didn't go well in track and field, even though I won two gold medals. It's those Games that are bittersweet. I wanted to put that right in this Games.”
“I'm a bit of a weak athlete, which is unfortunate, but it's normal in a sport like track and field.”
Cox will also be cycling on Sunday, defending her mixed team sprint crown with Jodi Cundey and Jaco van Gas — all while battling a relapse of multiple sclerosis that has further eroded the right side of her body. “People have told me I can't do two sports at once, I can't do this and that,” she says. “But I'm like, 'OK, I'll give it a go,' and that just motivates me even more.”
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“When there's pressure, I see it as an opportunity to show how good I am.”
The cycling team will have high hopes of winning more medals on Thursday, thanks to Daphne Schrager, the C2 Individual Pursuit World Champion and a strong favourite to win a medal in the C1-3 Individual Pursuit despite making her Paralympic debut, and the tandem duo of Steve Bate and pilot Chris Latham.
After two years of cycling together, the pair won a silver medal at the 2024 Para-cycling World Championships, finishing behind Tristan Vanma and Patrick Vos of the Netherlands, who are expected to be their biggest rivals, in the men's B individual pursuit.
The British Cycling team achieved the best ever Paralympic result in Tokyo with 24 medals, with every athlete winning at least one, and are aiming for 14-20 medals in Paris. The team includes seven current Paralympic champions and the atmosphere at training camp is said to be upbeat. The team is staying close to the track but will move to the Athletes' Village in the second week when cycling moves to road events.
