University of Leeds Olympic Alumni

Claire Cashmore

Sport: Swimming
Coach: Robin Brew
DOB:21/5/1988
Hometown: Kidderminster
Category: S9
Degree: Linguistics (BA) 2011



Claire Cashmore was a proven athlete from a very young age and represented Great Britain at the 2004 and 2008 Paralympic Games. Claire won BBC Midlands Young Disabled Sports Person of the Year in 2004 after winning a gold medal at the British Championships, two bronze medals at Athens, and then setting two world records. At 16 years of age, she was the youngest member of the British Paralympics swimming team. Since then, Claire has set more British records and has enjoyed success at the 2006 World Cup, winning a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics and 2 gold and 2 silver at the 2009 World Championships in Rio.

Claire then came to Leeds in 2008 and graduated from the University of Leeds in 2011 with a degree in Linguistics. During this time Claire won a gold medal and broke the world record in the 4×100 m medley relay squad at the 2009 IPC European Championships. During the 2009 season, Claire also broke the European 200m IM record and represent GB at the World Short-Course Championships in Rio in December 2009. 

The 2011 season proved to be one of her most successful yet as she scooped a personal record of five medals at the IPC Swimming European Championships in Berlin.  Training for London 2012 is now underway and this is now Claire’s main focus having recently graduated.