Shana Cox

Background

As the only girl among a family of four children growing up on Long Island, Shana was right in the thick of athletics from a young age. “My brothers and I grew up playing as many sports as we could get our hands on,” she says. Her track career can be traced directly to her brother Adrian, who is two years older. One day he came home from school three hours late, only to find his little sister waiting on the front steps for him. When Adrian told the little pest that he’d joined the track team, she begged their mother to let her join, too.

After three national championships and a national indoor record at 300 meters while running for Holy Trinity High School in Hicksville, Shana headed for Penn State. After finishing ninth at 400 meters at NCAAs as a freshman, she moved up to the podium the next two years. Asked if destiny played a part in her 2008 NCAA title, she said: “Not so much destiny as it was me setting a goal for myself and accomplishing it. When you go from ninth to third to second, there’s only one direction to go, and that’s up.”

But it was the 4x400-meter championship that really got Shana excited: the individual title was a blessing, “but it was about business, and it was about me. The 4x400 was about us, and that’s why I came to Penn State.”

A British citizen since birth, Shana has represented Great Britain in international competiiton since 2012, and has been a key member of Team GB's 4x400m Relay, winning medals both at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships (gold) and 2013 IAAF World Championships (bronze).