Bradford students speak to Paralympian Hannah Cockroft

As part of disability awareness month, Adam Tasker, student development leader at the university organised a podcast ‘Meet the Paralympians’ where they interviewed athletes.

The series was filmed during lockdown and since then, Hannah, 29, and an honorary graduate of university, has gone on to pick up the sixth gold medal of her illustrious career by powering to T34 100 victory in a world-record time of 16.39 at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

Adam Tasker said: “It was about getting their stories out there and inspiring the students.

“Hannah Cockroft is absolutely brilliant, and I’m so pleased for her.

“She’s part of the Bradford family.”

The mini-series allowed students to interview a number of Paralympic athletes including Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, the most successful British Paralympian, Ali Jawad and Gemma Collis-McCann.

Conor MacMahon, a student who participated in the series said: “It was a really fantastic opportunity and I think it really helped hone my confidence and my interviewing skills.

“Hannah was really lovely to speak to, she was friendly and interacted with the students involved in the podcast.

“She was the very first Paralympian we spoke to, so you can tell I’m a bit nervous but after interviewing her, I think I gained confidence for the next episodes that we did.”

The podcast series hope to inspire fellow students, after hearing the stories of Paralympians and the challenges that they overcame to progress in their fields.

ZainUl Abdin, Sports Officer at the university said: “It was an amazing experience.

“This was only the second interview I had done, but Hannah was so calm and enthusiastic when talking about her struggles and the challenges she overcame to get to her position.

“Having guests like her on the podcast allowed us to showcase to students, that challenges are meant to be overcome and Hannah demonstrated this through going out there and doing what she loved.”