Transcript
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[TEXT ON SCREEN: Hannah Cockcroft is the current World and European champion, a world record holder and multiple Paralympic gold medallist. Hannah is a #More2Me champion.]
HANNAH COCKCROFT:
When I got involved with wheelchair racing, I never-- it was never a dream. I never wanted to be a Paralympian, so I always had different interests and different hobbies going on around that. I still went to college. I still went to sixth form, got my A-levels, got a degree at college, went to university. I just always had something else fitted in there, because I found that the moment athletics grew, the more I kind of wanted that distraction.
I think it's really important to have something else outside of your sport that you can go away and focus on. For me, it's just about having two channels. So I've got my athletics channel, and I love athletics. I love my training. It's the most important thing in the world to me.
But I found, going into London 2012 when all I was was an athlete, I just found that I got bored. Training didn't-- it didn't switch me on like it should do. It didn't feel like the most important thing in the world. Because I was doing it. I was eating, sleeping, everything was around training. And so my coach encouraged me. He encouraged me to go to university, just to add that a little bit of extra something back in so that I could have that change of channels.
Post 2012, I decided that I wanted to move into television and media studies. I wanted to work in the media somehow. And off the back of that, I worked really hard with my lifestyle advisor. So I went and studied journalism at university, and then, we just recently completed a presenting course. And then that got me my first ever job on BBC Countryfile.
My interests are really, really simple. Music-- I love going to concerts and gigs, and love just live music. I go to the cinema. I go shopping. They're not massive interests. But I obviously don't have loads of time for something time consuming. So for me, it's just finding that little thing that I can switch off from my training and just go into normal person mode, as it were.
I think if an athlete or a coach came to me and said they don't want any other interest outside sport. They want to be totally focused. Ultimately, it's a personal decision. You decide what you want to do outside of sport. But my advice to them would be that if you are so focused on one thing, then you're never going to grow as a person. And you're never really going to build a life outside of sport. And eventually for us all, we're all going to have to end sport. And it's going to be a lot sooner than retirement age.
It doesn't have to distract you. It can work really well alongside your sport as long as it's the right thing.
I think my message to any athlete coming into sport-- but also any athlete that's already in sport that's maybe struggling to find that balance-- is to just go out and try things. For me, everything that I've tried has just come up as an opportunity. And I've always been brought up to think that if you don't take that opportunity, you'll never know whether you enjoyed it or whether you didn't. And the thing is you never lose anything by taking opportunities.
Yes, I'm Hannah the athlete. I love to train, and training's what I do. But you have to find something else that lets your body and your mind rest from that. You don't want to be constantly thinking about 800-meter tactics. You need to go out-- even if it's something simple like going out with your friends, going for a meal, going to cinema. Or if it's something bigger like continuing your education or finding a part-time job-- whatever it is.
I know that my lifestyle advisor's always there to lean on and to support me in making the right decision. And I know that everyone else's will do that too.
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[TEXT ON SCREEN: Outside of sport Hannah is a keen baker having appeared on Channel 4’s Celebrity Bake Off. She’s also an aspiring TV presenter having already presented on BBC’s Countryfile. Meanwhile Hannah is in full-time training as she heads towards the 2020 Paralympic Games. #More2Me. For more information go to: https://www.eis2win.co.uk/service/performance-lifestyle/]