Kayla Clarke

Clarke was born in Silkstone, Queensland.[2][3] She has an intellectual disability.[2] She attended Ipswich Central High School and Bremer State High School,[4] and was named the 2009–10 Ipswich News YoungStar Sports winner.[2]

Clarke started swimming competitively in 2007, and competes in the S14 classification.[5] She was a member of the Woogaroo Swimming Club,[2] and was coached by Tony Keogh, who became her coach in 2008.[6] She has a swimming scholarship with the Queensland Academy of Sport,[7] is involved in the Australian Institute of Sport program,[6] and received A$20,000 in Australian Government Direct Athlete Support (DAS) funds in the 2011–12 financial year.[8] One of her major swimming rivals is fellow Australian swimmer Taylor Corry.[9]

At the 2009 Queensland State Championships, she won five gold medals in her classification races.[10] The Queensland Secondary School Titles that year ended with her winning seven first-place finishes,[10] and she earned five gold medals, a silver medal two bronze medals at the 2009 Global Games.[2][5][6][10]

In 2010, she won eight gold and two silver medals at Australian Disability Age Group Nationals,[2][5][10] and competed in the International Paralympic Swimming World Championships, where she finished second with a personal best time of 1:11.13 in the S14 100m backstroke event. She also finished fourth in the 200m freestyle and fifth in the 100m breaststroke.[2][6][11][12]

Clarke became affiliated with the Yeronga Park Club in 2011 in an effort to make the Paralympic Games, and switched coaches, taking on Rick Van Der Zant as her new coach.[4] The 2011 Australian national championships saw her win six golds in seven events, including the 100m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley.[6] She competed in the inaugural 2011 Para Pan Pacific Championships, where she finished first in the S14 200m freestyle event,[3][6] and at the 2011 Can-Am Swimming Open, in which she posted first-place finishes in the 100m backstroke and 200m freestyle events.[9]

Clarke was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in the S14 100m backstroke, 200m freestyle and 100m breaststroke events.[5][13] These were her first Paralympic Games, and she was the only female swimmer from Queensland. Going into the Games, she was ranked second in the world in the 100m backstroke. She trained for the Games in China in order to acclimatise, and participated in a two-week-long national team training camp in Cardiff prior to the start. Support for her Paralympic efforts came from sponsors including TogTastic Racing and Training Swimwear.[4] She made the finals in all three events, but finished outside the medals, being placed fourth in the 200m freestyle and 100m breaststroke, and sixth in the 100m backstroke.[14][15][16]

Clarke won five gold and a silver medal at the 2014 Pan Pacific Para-swimming Championships in Pasadena, California. After the Championships, she underwent shoulder surgery.[17]

• Kayla Clarke at Swimming Australia (archived)