Known most recently for having been burgled in Manchester, Rosie Bancroft is a prospective Paralympic swimmer who loves to travel. When thieves broke into her home, they stole her specially adapted Fiat 500 and prosthetic running leg, but this hasn't stopped her savage training routine.
SHS: What does your average day look like when coordinating uni work, training etc?
Rosie: My average day is normally waking up at 6:30 for training at 7-9:30 in the pool and then some days I’ll have gym straight after until 11:30. Then I come home and eat and have a nap, then try and fit in a bit of uni work before heading out to my second training session of the day, from 3-5:30. I’ll get home and eat dinner and do some more uni work or just pass out on the sofa and watch Netflix. I’m normally in bed by about 10. On the days I don’t have a double session I try and cram in as much uni as possible. I also coach the uni swim team two days a week 7-9PM which takes out my evenings on those days.
As students, we are known for being unapologetically sluggish, especially during the early hours of the morning. How do go about keeping on top of everything and stay motivated?
I would be lying if I said I’m not sluggish in the mornings. I absolutely hate getting up for training but it’s the nature of the sport, and the drive to do well at it pushes you out of bed. I often struggle to keep on top of everything to be fair, but I just try and make sure I use any spare time effectively to get my work done.
With what I assume is a routine that can be very hectic at times, is it hard to balance a social life and going out? What does a night off work and training consist of for you?
I still absolutely love socialising and I think it’s really important to have a balance and have fun as well. I have an amazing group of friends at uni and if I’m on a recovery week at training I normally have Wednesday night and Thursday morning off training and absolutely love going out with the Athletic Union on a Wednesday.
What challenges would you say you face being at uni with a disability, compared to some of your peers?
I find walking around campus pretty difficult so normally would drive everywhere. Apart from that it doesn’t really affect me much to be honest.
How did you get involved with swimming and the Paralympics? Was this always the aim or was it just something that came up through training?
I’ve been swimming since I was really young and been in para-swimming and on national programmes since I was about 13. It was an obvious choice of sport for me as it was a lot easier for me than running or cycling for example.
Obviously you’ve been talked about recently in the media for the theft from your home in Manchester, what happened?
Me and my boyfriend were sleeping upstairs when someone came in the house and took my handbag, coat, car keys and other things and drove my car away. My car had one of my prosthetic legs - a running one that I use for the gym. It took us a while to realise the next day because I barely left my room for hours working on my dissertation. When we finally realised, I called the police and they said there wasn’t a lot they could do, but suggested putting it on social media to see if anyone spotted it. It kinda went mad from there and loads of people shared it and tried to help which was so nice, but unfortunately I haven’t heard anything yet.
Have you encountered any difficult barriers, or people telling you you can’t do certain things?
Yeah I've definitely had a lot of barriers. I just missed out on qualifying for Rio 2016 which was a huge blow and that was when I decided to have a few months off and went traveling around the world on my own which changed everything, especially my perspective on it all! And yeah you’ll always have people who will doubt what you can do because of your disability, but it’s never bothered me just made me more determined to prove them wrong and do everything.
As well as all of this, you’ve recently done some volunteer work, can you tell us a bit about this and what it involved? Is this something you’re particularly passionate about?
When I went travelling, the first stop was Tanzania where I spent a month volunteering in a centre for children with disabilities. It was really eye opening and difficult, but the best thing I’ve ever done. The children born with disabilities there get shunned from the community and are looked down on, so these centres give them a happy, safe place to be and an opportunity to learn and have life skills. But, they have almost no money so something I feel passionate about would be going back to volunteer again, raise awareness for them and hopefully raise money for the organisation.
In terms of your career in swimming, how do you see this evolving over the next few years?
I’m hoping to qualify for a major championship over the next few years and the final goal would be Tokyo in 2020. I’ll see how it goes and as long as I’m still enjoying it and fitting everything in I’ll keep going! After I graduate I’m hoping to go travelling for a while and go to all the places I wanna see, which is a lot! In terms of career I’m not sure yet, I love my degree and think I’d like to something to do with conservation or research but I haven’t decided yet!
