Paralympic champion Hannah Cockroft fears a future of unemployment when she retires from wheelchair racing

She dazzled the nation at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, taking home two gold medals.

But now Hannah Cockroft MBE, the world record-breaking wheelchair racer who has won five gold medals for Britain, fears she will become trapped in a cycle of unemployment once she is too old to compete professionally, joining the ranks of Britain’s 800,000 young people who are not in employment or training.

Her comments come amid wider concern that the champions of London’s 2012 Games are falling into uncertain futures, with many having little work experience outside athletics.

Reports have suggested that 64 of Team GB’s athletes were heading to the job centre within six months of the competition.

“I’m a young person, I’m 25, and so many of my friends are stuck in that cycle [where there’s] no opportunity to get experience, to get a job, and if you can’t get a job then you can’t get experience,” she told The Sunday Telegraph.

“It’s so frustrating, because I know that my career’s not going to last forever, and at some point I too am going to get stuck in that cycle.”

Cockroft, who has cerebral palsy, volunteers for Movement to Work, a charity that gets young ‘NEETs’ - those not in employment or training - into internships and jobs.

“It’s my passion to come here and to think things are being done about that, and people are sticking their heads out and giving [young] people an opportunity and a better chance.”

Cockroft, who was given an MBE in 2013, won three more gold medals at Rio in 2016, breaking the Paralympic record for the Women’s T34 100 metres.

In 2012, the Royal Mail issued two stamps featuring the athlete to honour her achievements in the London Paralympics that year.

Since 2012, UK Sport has begun hosting an annual athletes careers fair, and the English Institute of Sport now employs a 27 person-strong ‘Performance Lifestyle’ team, which acts as a careers service for British athletes worried about their future.

Earlier this year badminton player Gail Emms, who won an Olympic silver medal in 2004, as well as world, European and Commonwealth gold, was forced to issue a public cry for help after she was unable to find work and had to sell her possessions on eBay to make ends meet.

“It’s a massive dent in my pride to admit that an Olympic medallist is struggling,” she wrote at the time. “Why would someone employ me? I have a CV that reads ‘played professional badminton for 10 years’.”

Emms also suggested that the government-backed UK Sport failed to understand that “the athletes they rely on for the country’s feel-good factor can sink into this situation”.

The British Olympic Association said it is “committed to promoting and supporting events designed to engage prospective employers with athletes”.

A spokesman said: “We recognise the importance of career transition for athletes and support initiatives such as the Athletes Future Network, aimed at opening up future career and education opportunities to both current and retired athletes.”