Kadeena Cox Brings Gold to St. John Fisher
St. John Fisher Catholic High School was honoured to welcome British parasport athlete Kadeena Cox to school last week. Taking time out of her busy training schedule for the Tokyo Olympics, Kadeena spoke with students from across the school, inspiring them with her story and achievements.
Leeds born Kadeena is a British parasport athlete who competes in both the T38 sprint events and C4 para-cycling events. After having suffered a stroke in 2014, she was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Since then, she has gone on to become the 400m world record holder and winner of a gold medal at the Rio 2016 games, along with being world champion in multiple events.
Mr Nightingale (who taught Kadeena in his previous teaching post) organised the visit and spoke of his own pride at seeing what Kadeena had achieved, and through her dedication and determination, had inspired him to engage more young people in sport.
Taking the time to speak directly with the A Level PE cohort, Kadeena spoke at length about the challenges she has faced, her gruelling training schedule, leading a celebrity life and setting goals throughout her career. In a later socially distanced session with Years 7-10 she was asked by a student who she wanted to beat in a race. Her resounding answer was "myself" - real testimony to how an Olympic athlete thinks. Her words really motivated and inspired the students and it was a pleasure to welcome one of the most successful parasport athletes of all time to Harrogate.
