Hannah Lucy Cockroft[3] (born 30 July 1992) is a British wheelchair racer specialising in sprint distances in the T34 classification and TV presenter.

She had two cardiac arrests after birth which left her with permanent damage in numerous areas of her brain, resulting in weak hips, deformed feet and legs and mobility problems and affecting the fine motor skills in her hands.

[11] After being turned away from sport throughout her primary education, Cockroft competed at secondary school in swimming, seated discus and wheelchair basketball.

[12][13] As a result of a silver medal performance in the seated discus at the UK School Games, she attended a British Paralympic Association talent day at Loughborough University in October 2007.

[12] In 2008 a dance academy she attended gave the proceeds from programme sales at its annual show to help her buy her own racing chair, but when it arrived, its made-to-measure set up was incorrect, so her father, a welder, modified the wheelchair to fit.

[12] In 2009, Cockroft participated in her first ever road race; the London Mini Marathon, taking the Champion title in the girls 14–19 age group category.

[20] Cockroft made her senior Great Britain team debut at the age of 19, at the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand.

[24] In honour of her achievements at London 2012, Royal Mail issued two postage stamps featuring Cockroft and painted two post boxes gold in her home town of Halifax.

[25][26] She was awarded the freedom of Calderdale at a homecoming event at the Halifax Piece Hall and was named an MBE in the 2013 New Year Honours.

[citation needed] 2015 saw Cockroft lose her first race in seven years, when she came second to British compatriot Kare Adenegan over 400 metres at the Newham open meet in July.

Although she had food poisoning the night before the T34 100 metres final, Cockroft powered home to take gold in a new world-record time of 17.18 seconds.

After topping the podium for seven years, the 26-year-old won silver in the T34 100 metres at the World Para Athletics European Championships in Berlin.

[39] At the end of June, she was in Manchester for the British Athletic Championships where she was first in a mixed classification 400 metres wheelchair race in front of Sammi Kinghorn and Mel Woods.

[52][53] In 2020, Cockcroft and her partner Nathan Maguire appeared together on a celebrity special of the BBC television programme The Hit List.