Golden girl Hannah Cockcroft is on track for Paris perfection

Golden girl Hannah Cockcroft is hoping to add two more to her collection at the Paris Paralympics.

But the wheelchair racer, who already has seven golds from the past three Games, says she is more motivated by “intrigue” over how fast she can really go.

One of the poster girls of London 2012, Hannah admits to feeling the pressure to equal her previous success as her body is changing as she ages.

“Sitting on that line is the worst feeling in the world. And every time we do it, I sit there and am like, ‘why do I keep doing this?’,” she laughs.

“I’ve grown up in this body that was always being told what it can’t do, what it will never do... yet here I am as a world record holder, a world champion, one of the best athletes in the world, and I did that.

“I know I can go faster, I know that there is something better and I just have to figure out how to do it. I mean, I figured it out this far.”

She adds: “Obviously I’m getting older, so my 32-year-old body can’t really deal with what my 20-year-old body could, but... I think mentally I’m just learning all the time.

“I’m getting married in six weeks, so then there’s things that come off the back of that. Like, I’m 32, do I want to have kids?

“Will that affect my racing in some form? So yeah, time is the enemy, because we don’t have unlimited time.”

Hannah and her fiance, Nathan Maguire, who is also a Team GB wheelchair racer, appear in Channel 4 documentary Path To Paris: Paralympic Dream, which follows a group of our Paralympians on their journey to the Games.

She is funded by the National Lottery, which ensures athletes can train full time, have access to the best coaches and benefit from pioneering technology, science and medical support.

The star, who will compete in the 100m and 800m at her fourth Paralympics, knows the expectations are high for her.

She says: “London 2012 was my first Games and I think naivety just pulled me along there. I was just in it for a good time, definitely not a long time. I think every Games the pressure has just got a little bit more and the competition’s got more as well.

“So I feel the expectation, I feel the pressure, but at the same time it’s so nice, because people are so supportive. It’s so many people saying, ‘we know you can do it, you’ve got this’.”

Hannah, from Halifax, will marry Nathan, 27, just weeks after the Games end, a decision she says may not have been the best with “hindsight”. She explains: “It’s been a lot planning a wedding and a Paralympics. It’s been a really crazy year that I won’t be sad when it’s all completed and done, but I am looking forward to it.

“Ultimately, the way we’re looking at it is, if we have a really great games, then it’s just the perfect celebration with all our family and friends. And even if it’s not exactly what we want, then it’s still the best way to end a year and still make it a special year.”

Nathan has a relay silver from the Tokyo Paralympics to his name, but Hannah says she would enjoy seeing him win his first individual medal more than winning more herself.

“Nathan is such a nervous racer, like he 100 per cent has the ability to go in there and just win a gold, but he’s almost too British about it. Like, ‘no, you first’. Winning would change his confidence. It’s his time, he’s put in the work. It is his third Games, he’s done everything that he needs to do.

"I just know how much it would mean to him, like he won his first World Championship medal this year in the 800m in Japan. I wasn’t there, so I was watching from the back of a taxi, but seeing his little face on the podium, he was just so incredibly happy. That’s what you want for someone that you love.”

Now, all that’s left to do is go for gold in Paris, but will this be her last grasp for glory?

“I’d love to have another Games in me. I definitely don’t want Paris to be my last. But at 32 people are saying to me, ‘this is your last?’. I feel like I’m just fresh-faced and still enjoying it.

“I could trip and fall in an hour’s time, and that’s the end of my career. It’s not an endless career. You have to make the most of it the

minute you have it and that’s exactly what I’m trying to do. If you’d asked me in 2012 if I’d still be here now, I don’t think I’d have said yes, but here I am doing what I love.”

● The Path to Paris: Paralympic Dreams airs today at 4.55pm on Channel 4. The Paralympics begin on Wednesday