Kadeena Cox (born 10 March 1991) is a parasport athlete competing in T38 para-athletics sprint events and C4 para-cycling and British television presenter. She was part of the

2015 IPC Athletics World Championships The 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships were a Paralympic track and field meet organized by the World Para Athletics subcommittee of the International Paralympic Committee. The event was the 7th edition of what is now known as the World Para ...

and the 2016

UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships The UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships are the world championships for track cycling where athletes with a physical disability compete, organized by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). The Championships were earlier administered by t ...

, in which she won world titles in the T37 100m and C4 500m time trial respectively. Competing for

Great Britain at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Great Britain and Northern Ireland competed, under the name Great Britain, at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016. The first places for which the team qualified were for six athletes in sail ...

, in both athletics and cycling, she won a bronze medal in the Women's 100m T38 sprint, before winning a gold medal in the Women's C4-5 cycling time trial, and another gold in the T38 400m sprint, becoming the first British Paralympian to win golds in multiple sports at the same Games since Isabel Barr at the

1984 Summer Paralympics The 1984 International Games for the Disabled, canonically the 1984 Summer Paralympics were the seventh Paralympic Games to be held. There were two separate competitions: one in Stoke Mandeville, England, United Kingdom for wheelchair athletes ...

. In 2021 she appeared as a contestant on ITV's '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!''. In September 2021 Cox was the winner of the sixteenth series of BBC's ''

Celebrity MasterChef ''MasterChef'' is a competitive cooking reality show produced by Endemol Shine UK and Banijay and broadcast in 60 countries around the world. In the UK, it is produced by the BBC. The show initially ran from 1990 to 2001 and was revived in 2 ...

''.

Early and personal life

Cox was born on 10 March 1991 in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England to Jamaican migrants. Her first school was Bracken Edge Primary in

Chapeltown, Leeds Chapeltown is a suburb of north-east Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It is part of the Leeds City Council Ward of Chapel Allerton. It is approximately one mile north of Leeds city centre. Location and boundaries Chapeltown has no official ...

. She attended Wetherby High School before going to

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has over 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Educat ...

where she studied physiotherapy.

Sporting career

As an able bodied athlete

Cox began sprinting competitively at the age of 15 after her hockey coach suggested she try the sport. Over the next three years she competed at regional under-17 meets gaining several podium finishes in the 100m events. In 2007, she added the 60m and 200m to her repertoire, taking bronze in the U17 events at both the Manchester Open and the England Athletics Open Championships in the 60m that year. By 2009 Cox was competing throughout the athletics season, recording personal bests of 12.60s in the 100m and 25.58s in the 200m, both at the Yorkshire & Humberside County Championships. In 2012 Cox was entering national events and recorded a new personal best in the 200m in the BUCS Championships held at the

Olympic Park An Olympic Park is a sports campus for hosting the Olympic Games. Typically it contains the Olympic Stadium and the International Broadcast Centre. It may also contain the Olympic Village or some of the other sports venues, such as the aquatics ...

, a result which saw her take bronze. In 2013, she broke the 12 second barrier in the 100m for the first time, recording a time of 11.97 at the Northern Athletics Championships. She subsequently set a personal best of 11.93s for the 100m the same year. In addition to running, before her illness Cox was vying for a place on the British skeleton team. On 18 May 2014, Cox entered the Loughborough International: two days later she was rushed to hospital after showing odd symptoms and was diagnosed as having a stroke. After two months of physiotherapy she recovered back to normal health and began training again. Then on 15 September 2014 she experienced burning sensations in her right arm, which over the following few days worsened to numbness in her arm and right leg and she was again taken to hospital with suspicions of a stroke. After extensive tests she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

As a parasport sprinter

Intent on making the

2016 Summer Paralympics The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for disabled sports, athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, fro ...

in Rio, Cox was classified as both a T37 track and field athlete, to continuing her sprinting career, and a C2 track cyclist. A month later, Cox was selected for the Great Britain athletics team to compete at the

in Doha, where she entered the T37 100m and 200m sprints. In the heats leading up to the final of the 100m sprint, Cox posted a time of 13.59s to beat the world record set by France's Mandy Francois-Elie. Later that day she ran in the 100m T37 final, taking the gold medal in a time of 13:60, beating teammate

Georgina Hermitage Georgina Hermitage, (born 28 March 1989) is a former British parasport athlete competing in T37 sprint events. In 2015, she qualified for the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha, selected for the T37 100m and 200m. She took the gol ...

into second place. Her final event of the championship, the T37 200m sprint, ended in controversy after she missed registration by a minute and was disqualified from the race. In June 2016, after securing a place at the 2016 Summer Paralympics as a T37 athlete, Cox was reclassified as a T38 category athlete, a classification for less-disabled athletes. This threw her hopes to race at Rio into jeopardy as Britain already fielded two other athletes, Sophie Hahn and Olivia Breen, who had posted faster times as T38 sprinters. Despite the classification change, Cox was selected for the Rio Paralympics in July 2016. At the Games she took a gold in the T38 400m, a silver in the T35-38 relay and a bronze in the T38 100m. She also set a new world record of 1:00.71 to take the gold medal in the T38 400m. Cox was subsequently selected as the flag-bearer for the British team at the closing ceremony. A late addition to the GB squad, Cox competed in the T38 400m at the delayed 2020 Summer Paralympics in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. She finished 4th with a time of 1:01.16, her season best.

As a para-cyclist

In September 2015, Cox entered the

British National Track Championships The British National Track Championships are held annually and organised by British Cycling (formerly the British Cycling Federation). The main events are various track cycling disciplines for elite athletes to determine the British national cha ...

where she took the gold medal in the C1-5 Mixed Gender Sprint Time Trial. In March 2016, Cox represented Great Britain at the

in Montichiari. Despite being reclassified as a C4 cyclist the day before the event, she still went on to win gold in the 500m time trial with a world record of 37.456s. On 1 August, Cox was named in the Great Britain team to compete at the Rio Paralympics with the potential to race in the 500m time trial (C4/C5) and the road race (C4/C5). Cox won gold in the 500m time trial in the 2016 Paralympics: her time of 34.598 seconds also set a new world record. At the delayed Tokyo Paralympics, Cox defended her time trial title, again winning gold in a world record time of 34.812 seconds.

Awards and honours

Cox was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the

2017 New Year Honours The 2017 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours were awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

for services to athletics and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the

2022 New Year Honours The 2022 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrations ...

for services to athletics and cycling. In March 2017, Cox was awarded the Sporting Equals Sportswoman of the Year at the

Lycamobile Lycamobile is a British mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) operating in 60 countries. The brand is active in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal ...

British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards (BEDSAs) held at the London Hilton on Park Lane. On 5 June 2022 Cox, riding a cycle alongside Sir Chris Hoy, headed "The Time of Our Lives" section of the Platinum Jubilee Pageant.

Media appearances

She appeared on '' Celebrity Mastermind'' in December 2016, scoring just 3 points with her specialist subject Arsenal F.C., and no points at all in the general knowledge round. This is the lowest ever score. She won the second Celebrity '' Robot Wars 2016'' episode later that month with her collaboration with Ellis Ware (who drove Pulsar in the preceding regular series), with a robot called Kadeena Machina, a robot with a vertical disc, which won all four of its fights, the only robot to do so. In 2017, she took part in the British television winter sports show '' The Jump'', but had her funding suspended while on the show due to the number of injuries contestants sometimes have. In April 2018, Cox took part in ''

The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off ''The Great British Bake Off'' (often abbreviated to ''Bake Off'' or ''GBBO'') is a British television baking competition, produced by Love Productions, in which a group of amateur bakers compete against each other in a series of rounds, att ...

'' on Channel 4 in aid of

Stand Up to Cancer Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C) is a charitable program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF). SU2C aims to raise significant funds for translational cancer research through online and televised efforts. Central to the program is a telethon tha ...

. In 2021, she appeared on ''

Celebrity Gogglebox ''Gogglebox'' is a British reality television series created by Stephen Lambert, Tania Alexander and Tim Harcourt, and broadcast on Channel 4. The series documents families and groups of friends around the United Kingdom who are filmed for thei ...

'' with fellow athlete

Adam Gemili Adam Ahmed Gemili (born 6 October 1993) is a British sprinter. He is the 2014 European champion at 200 metres, and 4 x 100 metres relay, and part of the Great Britain team that won gold in the 2017 World Championships in the same event. He ...

. In September 2021, Cox won the sixteenth series of BBC's ''

'', beating

Joe Swash Joseph Adam Swash is an English actor and television presenter, best known for his role of Mickey Miller in the BBC One soap opera ''EastEnders'' and various presenting roles with ITV2. He won the eighth series of '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me ...

and

Megan McKenna Megan Elizabeth McKenna (born 26 September 1992) is an English television personality and singer. After making appearances on '' Ex on the Beach'' (2015–2016), she received wider attention for appearing on '' Celebrity Big Brother'' (2016) an ...

. In November 2021, Cox was announced as a contestant on the twenty-first series of '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!''. She was second to be eliminated. Then in June 2022, Cox made a cameo appearance in an

episode An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a series intended for radio, television or streaming consumption. The noun ''episode'' is derived from the Greek term ''epeisodion'' (), meaning th ...

of the BBC soap opera '' Doctors''.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cox, Kadeena 1991 births English female sprinters Living people World record holders in Paralympic athletics British disabled sportspeople Sportswomen with disabilities Track and field athletes with disabilities English track cyclists English female cyclists Black British sportswomen English people of Jamaican descent Paralympic bronze medalists for Great Britain Paralympic silver medalists for Great Britain Paralympic gold medalists for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Cyclists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Officers of the Order of the British Empire Sportspeople from Leeds Para-cyclists Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) Paralympic medalists in cycling Paralympic athletes of Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Cyclists at the 2020 Summer Paralympics I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (British TV series) participants People with multiple sclerosis