New Year Honours: Hannah Cockroft hopes OBE will help lead to wider change
The seven-time paralympic champion, from Halifax, has been speaking to us about representation and the impact on young disabled people
Paralympian Hannah Cockroft has been named among a series of sporting champions leading the New Year Honours list for 2022.
The seven-time gold medallist, from Halifax, has received an OBE, for services to athlectics.
Hannah's told Greatest Hits Radio about the impact she's hoping the honour can have, on helping young disabled people to achieve their dreams, and wider representation.
"You have to keep quiet for quite a long time!"
Hannah says she was "so excited" when the letter arrived, telling her about the OBE: "It actually came through about two months ago, so you have to keep quiet for quite a long time. It's just a massive honour, really unexpected. I got the MBE after London 2021, and I was 20 years old and just so new to all this. To still be being recognised nearly ten years down the line is pretty special.
"This year's been one of the best of my career. It's been absolutely amazing. And to say that during a pandemic I think is something pretty special. I broke all four of my world records this year. I've done times that I never even dreamt I'd be able to do, then to get to Tokyo, to break the world record out there in the 100m, and to bring home two gold medals... it was my dream come true."
"If I had myself to look up to, my childhood would have been very different"
Hannah told Greatest Hits Radio she is constantly aiming to improve representation of disabled people in the media, and is hoping the OBE being awarded will help that.
She said: "If I had myself to look up to, my childhood would have been very different. I didn't really do sport, I didn't do PE at school. If you'd have told me when I was five years old that this is what I was going to grow up to be... at five years old I hated my wheelchair, I hated being a disabled person, and here I am.
"I really hope that there's some little girl or boy out there who sees what I do and decides that they can do it too. I was brought up with an amazing attitude that I can do anything, I've just got to find my own way to do it.
"What gets me is that there's so many young disabled people still starting schools and being told they can't do PE, still being told they can't do sport outside of school, not being allowed to join their local clubs. I just hope that through something that I do, even if it's not the Paralympic Games, maybe they see be in the paper because I'm getting an OBE, or they see me on TV, they see me and think 'I can do that.'
"Whatever they want to be, I want young kids to see me and think, 'dreams do come true, you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it.' I just think it's so important for everyone to see someone like them. We still don't see that much disability representation in the media. We definitely have to improve it, and I just hope that what I am doing is enough for at least a few children out there."
The success of 'Team Yorkshire'
Across the Honours List, 78 Olympians and Paralympians have been honoured for their services to sport.
Many of those are linked to West Yorkshire, including Leeds Paralympian Kadeena Cox receiving an OBE, an MBE for Leeds-born diver Matty Lee and Bramhope's Jonny Brownlee earning an MBE for services to triathlon, among many others.
Hannah reckons "nothing stops" Team Yorkshire, adding: "There's been a pandemic and we still went out and won medals. We're gritty people and most of all we're just determined. We don't let anything ever stop us, and so we get to the top when we want to.
"That's not just in sport, that's in everything. That's every single Yorkshire person and it makes me so so proud.
"I love that Yorkshire pride we get to carry around, because we know that we get to come back to the best county in the world, and they're going to celebrate as much as we're celebrating. It's a pretty special place to be from."