Only 47% of Children Get Exercise Each Day — Paralympian Hannah Cockroft Wants Change

Hannah Cockcroft took to the world stage in September, winning gold in the 100m event at the Paris Paralympics, taking her ninth win. She’s an inspiration in every sense of the word, a world-record holder with records in the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, and 1500m. She’s made watching the Paralympics a new tradition for a beginner like myself and if her influence was able to grab the attention of my incredibly un-sporty household, there’s no doubt her excellence would be able to spread further.

That’s why, on behalf of the Youth Sport Trust, Cockroft has now teamed up with fellow Olympians and Paralympians to co-sign a letter asking the Prime Minister to ensure that every child in the UK has access to the fundamental rights to health and play and call on the huge benefits of sport and exercise for children.

“At this point, 19% of five year olds are taking part in the recommended 60 minutes of exercise a day and only 47% of five to 18 year olds. So less than 50% of the rest of our children are doing 60 minutes of exercise a day,” she tells PS UK.

“We have to help our children. And sport is a massive help to everybody. It changes our lives, it gives opportunities and skills that we can’t learn anywhere else. And it just makes you healthier and happier if you get active from a young age.”

From her Paralympics feats to her world records, there’s no surprise that Cockroft is passionate about sport, but it wasn’t always this way. “Growing up, sport was always something that I felt wasn’t really for me. My parents tried to get me involved outside of school, but that was still a battle as well. Finding adaptive sport didn’t really happen in the 90s and I would try to involve myself in everything that everyone else was doing, but it didn’t always end up okay.”

In the end, it was her passionate PE teacher in secondary school who thought outside of the box in an attempt to get Cockroft involved, inviting the local wheelchair basketball team for a class demonstration. “It was the first time that I ever saw a Paralympic sport. It opened the door for me and my school slowly started to realise it was quite easy to adapt. But I wasn’t asking to do rugby or cross country, but when everyone else was doing athletics, there was no difference between me sitting down and throwing a discus and everyone else standing up.”

“[My PE teacher] opened up the communication channels for me to know that Parasport was a thing I could get in contact with and learn more about. So after that, I joined the basketball team outside of school and they got me involved in everything. I tried wheelchair tennis, I tried wheelchair rugby and then obviously got involved in wheelchair racing when I was 15. And I think that’s when they say the rest was history.”

While Cockroft can’t personally coach every child in the UK, she hopes to have the same effect her PE teacher had on her in order to motivate kids to get into sport and to push the government to ensure children are learning to move and learning to get active from a very early age through this latest campaign with Youth Sport Trust.

“We want more physical activity in schools through PE, but also increased access to all kinds of sports, inside and outside of school,” Cockroft explains. “We want things targeted towards people like me, people with disabilities, or black girls who don’t feel comfortable wearing a traditional PE kit or people who are shy and don’t want to get involved. Whatever it is, we want the support to remove the barriers that are put in the way, so that everybody feels confident and happy when they’re being physically active.”

Times have changed since Cockroft’s childhood in the 90s. Playing in the street is no longer as safe as it once was, she says, and the distraction of smartphones, video games and more make staying indoors more appealing to young people, which Cockroft claims is leading to an obesity crisis.

“It’s putting pressure on the NHS, it’s creating a more disjointed and younger community that struggles to communicate,” she tells us. “So we need to tackle this now and we’re asking the government to really put their power behind it and make sure that it’s not a problem that lasts forever.”

Channel 4’s coverage of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games hit over 18.5 million viewers, with many tuned in to watch Cockroft’s win in the 100m and 800m and she has a social media following of over 90k across Instagram, Facebook and X. To those people, she offers the following advice: “Find the thing that you enjoy and find your group. The easiest way to get active to make yourself accountable,” she suggests.

“Whether it’s a running club that you join or it’s just a group of friends that you go for a walk with or you meet at the gym, whatever it is, find people that are going to say, ‘Where are you? We missed you today.’ Then. it’s not about going and doing the exercise, it’s about meeting a group of people, having fun, communicating. Sport is supposed to be engaging, not a chore or a task. So just do whatever it is that gets your body moving and say yes to everything because you might love it,” Cockroft concludes.

Lauren Gordon (she/her) is the editorial coordinator at PS UK, where she creates lifestyle and identity content. Lauren has a degree in journalism from University of the Arts London and previously worked as a showbiz and TV reporter at The Mirror US. Lauren specialises in pop culture, hair and beauty, focusing on trends, sharing in-depth tutorials, and highlighting hidden gems in the beauty industry.