Kadeena Cox takes gold with blistering world record breaking ride at Paralympics

Kadeena Cox has retained her title at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, taking gold and breaking the world record in the C4-5 500 metre time trial.

Cox, who is the first black cyclist to win a medal for Team GB at either Paralympics or Olympics, took gold by over a second on Canadian rider Kate O’Brien.

This year the 30-year-old set up the KC Academy, in the hopes of improving diversity in elite cycling, as Cox hopes her ride may inspire others to follow in her footsteps. 

Speaking to Channel 4 after her race she said: "Just do everything you want to do. I set up the KC Academy to get more people from a black background into cycling because if you don’t see someone you don’t think you could be it. 

>>> Israel Start-Up Nation begin using electric cars during races with aim for whole fleet to go 'green'

"I fell into cycling by accident and now I want other people to see me, and they can maybe go on and do better than me like I totally expect there to be some young girl or boy sat at home thinking ‘I want to be like Kadeena Cox’ and then going on to better everything I’ve done.

"That’s my hope and my dreams just to empower people to go and do better than me because there should be no reason that the colour of your skin should stop you from doing everything you want to do."

Cox's next race is the mixed team sprint in the velodrome, but she will also be racing on another track not on the bike, as she looks to retain her gold medal in the T38 400 metres on the running track as she was the first person ever to medal in two separate sports in the same Games. 

She added: "I was not paying attention to what anyone else was doing, I was just listening to my gospel music and just reading messages from my family and focussing on that. I got up and did my own thing.

"I think today I executed a race that was near-perfect and maybe I will go quicker tomorrow [in the mixed team sprint] with the boys either side of me.”