The five-time Paralympic gold medallist and 12-time world champion discussed the postponement on Sky Sports podcast Rise With Us.

"The postponement of the Games was really tough; I was the one in the house who cried," said Cockroft, who lives with fellow Paralympic athlete Nathan Maguire. 

"I really struggled with it.

"I just felt like I was there, and I was ready to go. 

"I was training really well, and I knew that it was going to be a good year.

"When you've been aiming for something for so long, when that gets taken away it's heartbreaking."

Tokyo 2020 was postponed in March as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Olympics now scheduled for July 23 to August 8 and the Paralympics from August 24 to September 5. 

The global health crisis led to the suspension of sport worldwide, with many athletes unable to even visit training facilities due to restrictive lockdown measures. 

Cockroft described how she adapted to training while living under COVID-19 restrictions.

"My motivation dipped a lot," she said. 

"Training last year, it was like nothing I've ever done before. 

"We had to be very creative; obviously tracks and gyms were shut, so I found a lot of new roads to go and train on in my local area.

"We built a gym in our garage, we changed our spare bedroom into a roller room.

"The roller for a race chair is a bit like a treadmill that you put the race chair on - so you can push but not move anywhere. 

"I did a lot more training on that than I would normally like to do.

"I spent a lot more money on gym [equipment] than I would normally like to do but I just wanted to get to Paralympic year and have no excuses. 

"I wanted to know that I was all set."

There is still uncertainty over the staging of Tokyo 2020 this year, but it will be Cockroft's third Paralympic Games if it does go ahead. 

The 28-year-old clinched gold in the T43 100 metres and 200m at London 2012, before topping the podium in the 100m, 400m and 800m at Rio 2016.