Last Updated on 08/09/2024 by Crip Life
Eden Rainbow-Cooper is currently in Paris competing in wheelchair racing at her first Paralympic Games. Ahead of her debut, she spoke to the media about growing up with a disability, becoming a wheelchair racer and her preparations for Paris 2024.
Eden Rainbow-Cooper has flourished since taking up wheelchair racing with David Weir’s WeirArcher outfit in 2013. Her first international experience came two years later in Brazil, where she represented Great Britain at the Paralympic school Games and came away with three gold medals in the T54 100m, 400m and 1500m.
In 2019, she won three silver medals at the World Junior Championships in the middle to long-distance events before she took a break from racing in 2021. She returned to represent England at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and won her first senior medal – silver in the T54 Women’s Marathon.
Eden made her senior debut on the track at the World Championships in Paris last year, finishing sixth in the 1500m and narrowly missing out on a medal with fourth place in the 5000m, but it is on the world marathon stage where she has been most successful this year.
After claiming second place at the Tokyo Marathon in March, Eden collected the Boston Marathon trophy the following month and is now considered one of the elite pack with consistent top-10 finishes on the major marathon circuit.
The 23-year-old from Waterlooville, Hampshire, is one of 34 track and field ParalympicsGB athletes selected for the Paralympic Games in Paris, where Eden is competing in the T54 1500m, 5000m and the Paralympic marathon.
As part of our ParalympicsGB debutants interview series, read on to find out more about Eden Rainbow-Cooper in her own words and scroll down to see her Paris 2024 results.
Eden Rainbow-Cooper on becoming a wheelchair racer
Eden was born with sacral agenesis, a genetic condition that affects the sacrum, which is the part of the spine just around the ‘tailbone’. The sacrum is formed by five bones (vertebrae) that are joined together. People with sacral agenesis are born with part or all of their sacrum missing, resulting in limited limited mobility.
She admits she has faced many barriers as a wheelchair user, particularly by society making the assumptions that her life will become difficult and she won’t be able to succeed in everything she wants.
While at a careers day at school, she mentioned she’d like to be an athlete and the adviser speaking to her replied “You don’t look like an athlete”. This led to the question, what does an athlete look like?
Speaking on the morning before travelling to Paris, Eden said: “For me, the thought of what does an athlete looks like has always been, that an athlete looks like someone who is an athlete. It doesn’t matter so much and especially when you’re in sport, it doesn’t make a difference. If you’re strong and you’re fit and in my case, if you’re fast, those are the three most important things regardless of anything else.”
Although she had aspirations to become an athlete, Eden felt as a child she did not have many inspirations to look up to:
“Growing up, for me, there weren’t many role models. I think that was just due to a lack of parasports being on the TV. It wasn’t something that I was aware of in the same way that football has been showcased on TV for young boys and girls growing up wanting to become a footballer.
“Then 2012 happened and there was this huge boom in investment of media into Parasports. It was all over Channel 4 and it was all over the news and it was the first time for me and I know quite a lot of other young athletes were like, ‘Oh wow, I can do sport’.”
Now 12 years on, Edwn believes there are more disabled athletes for young people to look up to: “We’re seeing a lot more, especially this year during the Olympics and hopefully going into the Paralympics – the different body types and looks of athletes across all sports and seeing how much that differs for every single person. I think it has been super inspiring to, I’m sure, lots of younger people coming up and going ‘I can do whatever I want regardless of what I look like or how much muscle I have or whatever’s going on there’.
When she first discovered wheelchair racing, Eden knew this was the sport for her: “From the second that I sat in a racing chair I was like, ‘yeah, this is for me. I really love this and that love has just grown and grown and grown and I love it more today than I did 10 years ago.”
Making history at the Boston Marathon
Eden made history earlier this year as the first British woman to win the Boston Marathon, making it the biggest win of her career so far. She completed the course 90 seconds clear of her rivals after leading the entire race and crossed the line in 1:35.11.
Eden feels this historic achievement has gained her more confidence and motivation to succeed in future events including the Paralympics this week.
She said: “For me, Boston was a lone race so seeing what my body is capable of on its own was a huge confidence booster. It’s been really nice to get that this year a few months before the Paralympics to know when I get on that start line at the Games, I know what I’m capable of and how hard my body can go. It will depend on the day what happens of course but knowing and having the confidence that I’m capable of being up there is huge for me.”
Eden Rainbow-Cooper on preparing for Paris 2024
Eden is one of seven debutant athletes competing at her first Paralympic Games. Commonwealth Youth Games champion, Madeline Down, Karim Chan, Funmi Oduwaiye, Didi Okoh and Marcus Perrineau-Daley are the other first-time selected athletes, while Harrison Walsh, who was called up to Tokyo before having to withdraw due to injury, is also among the athletes in the team for Paris.
Reacting to her selection, Eden said: “I am so excited to be selected for my first Paralympic Games. This has been a dream of mine since I was 12 years old, so to get to go to Paris is truly beyond belief. I can’t wait to get out there and give it my all at the Games.”
She added: “Preparations have been good. I’ve just been away with my coach for the last three weeks, which has been really nice. I feel good, I feel fit and I’m just getting really excited.”
Eden went on to share what her aims will be at Paris: “I think for me the biggest aim is to have fun and get that experience of a Paralympic Games. Going into my first Paralympic Games as one of the slightly younger athletes is going to be a very different racing experience than what I’m used to in terms of like the cool room and the whole setup of it and actually racing in a stadium, that’s something that we don’t do very often.
“So on the day, it’s going to be racing as good as I can, making sure that I’m happy with my own race and whatever the position may be from that, that’s what it is. Whoever’s best on the day will win and that might be me, that might not be me, it could be anything in between. It’s about going out, having fun and really just trying to soak in the experience of becoming a Paralympian for the first time.”
You can find out more about Eden Rainbow-Cooper by following her on Instagram.
Paris 2024 Paralympics: Eden Rainbow-Cooper’s results
Eden’s start to her first Paralympics has been anything but simple. She opened up her debut with the T54 5000m heats finishing in 5th.
Speaking after the race, she said: “I’m really happy, for me, it was always to get the first race out of the way and I can call myself a Paralympian. It’s really nice to have gone out there and I’m over the moon.”
On her Paralympics debut, she added: “It’s 11 years of hard work and it’s all so worth it. I’ve never raced in such a packed stadium and I’ve never heard so many people scream my name or just even the noise. It was incredible and it really helped when the pain kicked in on lap eight and nine.”
In the T54 5000m final, Eden had a dramatic start to the race, in which she had an issue with her racing chair causing her to tumble over. Luckily, she was allowed a restart. Unfortunately, Eden had to pull out of the race at the eight-and-a-half-minute mark with only three laps to go. The medalists were Switzerland’s Catherine Debrunner (gold), USA’s Susannah Scaroni (silver) and Australia’s Madison de Rozario (bronze).
Thankfully, she returned two days later to compete in the T54 1500m. Surprisingly, luck was on her side again, when she initially did not qualify for the finals, finishing in 7th place. However, she was reinstated into the race after a review from the officials, which showed she was obstructed by Brazilian athlete Vanessa Cristina de Souza during the heats.
Despite this, Eden only finished 7th in the finals. Fortunately, there was another British athlete on the podium with Sammy Kinghorn securing silver. Sammy was joined on the podium by gold medallist Catherine Debrunner and bronze medallist Susannah Scaroni.
On Sunday, Eden competed in the marathon, but sadly did not finish, having to pull out at the 19-mile mark at 1:19:46.
Be sure to catch up on Eden Rainbow-Cooper’s events and the rest of the ParalympicsGB athletics team at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games on Channel 4.
What is Para-athletics?
Para-athletics has been part of the Paralympic Games since 1960. It offers a wide range of competitions and events and is open to male and female athletes in all eligible impairment groups.
Athletes are grouped together according to their classification in each event. Some compete in wheelchairs and some with prostheses, while those who are vision impaired can receive support from a sighted guide. There are also events for athletes of short stature and for those with an intellectual impairment.
Eligible Impairments include athetosis, ataxia, hypertonia, impaired muscle power, impaired passive range of motion, leg length difference, limb deficiency, short stature, intellectual impairment, vision impairment.
Athletics has events for each of the impairment types that are eligible for Paralympic sport. Sport Classes are prefaced with “T” for track/jumping events, or “F” for field events. The double digit number that follows indicates the impairment type in the 1st digit, and the impairment level in the 2nd digit. There are 31 classification is interchangeable ranging from 11 to 64.
Eden’s classification is the T54. These athletes are wheelchair racers with the highest level of upper body strength and have a lower limb impairment.