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Swimmer Claire Cashmore MBE holds nine Paralympic medals, including one gold, three silver, and five bronze across paratriathlon and swimming.
With nine gold, eight silver and eight bronze European and World Championship medals also under her belt, Claire is a force to be reckoned with. She has competed in several swimming disciplines, including the 4x100m medley and freestyle relays, the 100m breaststroke, backstroke, and butterfly, and the 200m individual medley.
Claire is now one of the most inspirational sports and disability speakers on the circuit. As a Paralympic speaker, Claire offers motivational anecdotes from her childhood, training, and medal-winning achievements. Her slogan is “Pain is temporary, quitting is permanent”, showing the inspiring mindset that saw her achieve so much in her career.
Contact Great British Speakers today to book Paralympian Claire Cashmore for your next event.
Born without a left forearm, Claire Cashmore was determined that nothing would stand in her way. At the age of nine, she competed in a swimming gala in Dubai, where she was living. One of her competitors noticed her disability and asked her how she could swim. Instead of retaliating, Claire let her talent answer, winning the race. Returning to the UK two years later, she joined the Wyre Forest Swimming Club, with her hard work earning her the title of Junior British Champion.
Claire made her professional debut when she qualified for the 2004 Athens Games aged 16, and it was a debut to remember, coming home with two bronze medals. She continued this success at the 2008 Beijing Games, the 2012 London Games, the 2016 Rio Games, and the 2020 (rearranged to 2021) Tokyo Games.
After the Rio Games, Claire took some time to reflect on her career, ultimately deciding to transfer from swimming to the paratriathlon. She made her triathlon debut at the 2017 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final in Rotterdam. She won medals at the GBR Paratriathlon National Championships, Eton Dorney ITU Paratriathlon World Cup, Iseo-Franciacorta ITU World Paratriathlon Series, Tartu ETU Triathlon European Championships, and ITU World Triathlon Grand Final in Australia.
Claire competed at the 2024 Paris games, coming home with a Silver Medal in the individual triathlon.
As well as sporting trophies, Claire has won the BBC Midlands Young Disabled Sports Person of the Year award, the ITV Sporting Midlander of the Year, Npower’s Young Female Achiever, and WASP Disability of the Year. In the run-up to the London 2012 Games, Claire featured in Channel 4’s hugely successful “Meet the Superhumans” campaign, featuring on billboards up and down the country and on television.
Claire is also an Ambassador for Disability Sport in the UK, helping to encourage disabled children in sports of all kinds.
Outside of her professional sports commitments, Claire is a motivational keynote speaker on sports and disability. She shares her inspirational story with businesses, swimming clubs, and schools, providing talks, hosting award ceremonies, and chairing Q&A sessions.
– Peak Performance
– Sport
– Drive and Determination
– Paralympic Games
– Disability
– Maximizing Potential
– Overcoming Obstacles
Claire was a standout speaker at GE’s Leading & Learning conference in Paris, November 2016. The conference was attended by 130 female senior GE customers and GE senior executives. Claire spoke about her early life and the challenges she faced with her peers as they sought to diminish her confidence because she had a short arm. The audience were absolutely engaged with her struggle and ultimately Claire’s triumph over adversity. The audience appreciation feedback scored Claire as the most impressive and interesting speaker and we were absolutely thrilled to have a Paralympic medallist speak at our conference. I cannot recommend Claire Cashmore highly enough as a motivational and inspiring speaker.
Mary Fitzpatrick, Diversity & Inclusion Leader (GE Renewable Energy)
I have heard nothing but positive comments following your speech. I thought that you came across really well. You made the speech personal, you used humour well and you raised a number of thought provoking points. I thought the speech was very good. You hooked the audience in very early on with a high impact start, you then told a coherent story.
Keith Beech, Worcestershire County Council
The boys and staff were spell bound, it was an emotional and personal journey that Claire shared and an excellent lesson to us all in perseverance and determination against the odds. One of her messages to the boys was if you can’t do something, add in a “yet” at the end of the sentence because “everything is possible with determination and hard work”. Most of the boys got the opportunity to hold one of her Paralympic medals on her walk around individual classes as she answered questions from the boys.
Wimbledon Common Preparatory School
Claire gave an excellent motivational key note presentation at a healthcare event for us in Greater Manchester in February 2017 to around 200 staff. This was on a theme of strength and resilience and Claire’s personality, humour and personal determination was clear. She really engaged with the audience and answered many questions. The word used by many staff to sum up the session was ‘inspiring’. Claire also ran a very effective workshop as part of the event on goal setting and determination which used humour, active exercises, and practical action planning to help participants translate ideas into their lives.
Jon Rouse, Greater Manchester Health & Social care Partnership