Paralympic Gold winner and paracyclist par excellence, the vibrantly optimistic Brit Kadeena Cox’s net worth is still under review.
Kadeena Cox was born to Jamaican immigrants Jasmin and Asmond Cox on March 10, 1991, in Leeds, Yorkshire. A hockey player, Cox switched to athletics upon her coach’s suggestion and embarked on a sprinting career at 15.
How did Cox rise to fame?
Soon enough, her talent bubbled to the surface bringing her Bronze in the 60-metre sprint at the Manchester Open as well as the England Athletics Open Championships, in 2007.
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Cox secured another Bronze in 2012 in the 200-metre event of the BUCS Championships conducted at the Olympic Stadium. In 2013, she competed at the Northern Athletics Championships, sprinting the 100 metres in 11.97s. Cox subsequently recorded her personal best for the 100m that year, clocking 11.93s. Simultaneously, she was also competing for the British skeleton bobsled team.
May 2014 turned her life around at the Loughborough International meet when she suffered a stroke. Resuming training after hospitalisation and two months of physiotherapy, Cox once again suffered a stroke and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
A resilient Cox bounced back with the support of family, friends and about £3000 of fundraising through the website Talent Backer.
Her gym coach introduced her to cycling which she took to like a fish to water. That September, she won her first major title in the C1-5 500 metre time trial at the British Cycling National Track Championships, winning the team sprint at the Manchester International too soon after.
Selected for the IPC Athletics World Championships (October 21-31, 2015) in Doha, Cox clinched Gold in the T37 100 metre event (13.60s), while beating Mandy Francoise-Elie’s world record (13.59s) in the heats.
In March 2016, Cox competed at the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships, where she struck Gold (world record time of 37.456s) in the C4 500 metre time trial.
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Cox then competed in athletics and cycling at the Rio 2016 Summer Paralympics, in September. She won the Bronze in the Women’s T38 100m sprint, Silver in the T35-38 4×100-metre relay, Gold in the C4-5 500 metre cycling time trial (with a world record time of 34.598s), plus Gold in the athletics T38 400m sprint (another world record time of 1:00.71m). With this feat, Cox became the second British Paralympian to clinch Gold in different sports at a single Paralympics after Isabel Newstead née Barr’s discus and shooting prowess at the 1984 and 1988 Paralympics. Cox was chosen to bear the British flag at the closing ceremony and was also awarded the MBE at the 2017 New Year Honours.
Cox is a contestant on Channel 4’s reality TV show The Jump (starting February 5, 2017). Joining Cox on The Jump will be Olympic cycling champion Sir Bradley Wiggins, Olympic gymnast Louis Smith and Olympic taekwondo champion Jade Jones.
She has plans of using her Manchester Metropolitan University physiotherapy degree by ‘setting up a neurophysiotherapy clinic for children with cerebral palsy.
