16 and Sliver: Rhiannon Clarkes Amazing Journey

By Martin Davis

“BANG”, big crowd screams, Aussie chant echoing around the stadium. Running the biggest race of your life, heart pumping a million miles an hour, after 100 meters of pushing yourself to the max. Standing up on the podium with a silver medal around your neck seeing the Australian flag waving in the lights, for many this is a dream but for Rhiannon Clarke this is reality.

For many 16 year old high school students being able to represent your country can only be dreamt but in 2018 this became real for Rhiannon where she got to go to the Gold Coast as one of the youngest competitors in the T38 para-event.

Rhiannon suffers from Cerebral Palsy (CP) which is a disability that affects the muscles, with them being much tighter then everyone else’s. Having this disability has not stopped Rhiannon from running being in the T38/CP8 classification and being successful.

The T38 Class is all the same as normal racing just that T38 has people with mild cerebral palsy and there isn’t anything other than people having CP in the race and with athletes like Rhiannon Clarke it’s great to watch.

“…It just makes a few things in life a bit more tough. In my sport especially. I have a very mild cerebral palsy so it doesn't it affect me too much…”

Rhiannon got drawn into athletics, when she went to a para come and try day in 2014 and the main draw card for her was Paralympics and this is what got her started.

The 2018 commonwealth games final was a highlight of Rhiannon’s young career but with success comes the challenges that you need to overcome where Rhiannon says that one of the big challenges for her was just accepting her disability.

“I get injured a lot more easier than other people so I've had a few injuries leading up to com games.” She overcome these injuries and went off to the Gold Coast with hopes to just go there for just the experience.

The people that Rhiannon looks up too are other Para-athletes that have done things in the para athletics community with her number one idol being Madison De Rozario, who was younger than Rhiannon competing at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics at just the age of 14. “I just look up to everyone who is doing things in the para world”

Once over on the Gold Coast, it was full competition mode while gaining the experience that Rhiannon was looking for, after going through the qualifiers, one of the biggest evenings of Rhiannon’s young career was about to commence, The 100m T38 Final.

For Rhiannon the moments before the race were terrifying, Rhiannon said “ I just couldn't believe that I'd gotten there, I just froze in the moment…when they like called my name I was like overwhelmed with joy because the Australian crowd was screaming for me and it was Really amazing.”

During the race it was much the same as normal for then 15 year old, “ I just felt like it was another race and I'd done it before I'd run 100 meters before I knew how to do it [and] I knew what to do.” The starters gun went off and Rhiannon went out of the blocks with a bang reacting in 0.138 seconds of the gun an almost perfect start.

Rhiannon ran 100 meters in 13.17 seconds which was an Area Record in the T38 classification, with Sophie Hahn from England claiming the gold and the Games Record with a time of 12.46 seconds Rhiannon just missing out on the gold by only just 0.71 seconds.

The moments after the race were amazing she described the those moments of her having a smile on her face, she never went over there to win a medal, it was all about experience for her and getting that silver medal was an added bonus for her.

Rhiannon has many goals leading into the 2020 Paralympics, the short term goals fro her are to just improve her technique and getting better and stronger every day.

Long term goals for her are to be able to go to the 2019 world championships in Dubai which will qualify her for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics ], and to be able to go each Paralympics after that.

The Rhiannon outside of athletics is your typical 16 year old, she goes to school, hangs out with friends, goes swimming and enjoys to go and ride horses.

Being a year 11 student its much more demanding on Rhiannon compared to 2018 where it was much easier to balance keeping up with schoolwork and keeping grades up while also being an Australian athlete where Rhiannon has said that this year “now that im in Year 11 im noticing the challenges and finding the importance to balance out both.”.

Rhiannon gave out some very useful bit of advice to people with a disability which can also be used for people without a disability which was “I would give them the advice that they can do things and if they get into Paris sport. There are so many opportunities for so many different people to compete and people can just reach their goals and they should not stop trying.”

Rhiannon Clarke is one of the up and coming stars in the athletic and para-sports world, and with the Paralympics on her horizon and a hopefully long career just starting, there is going to be many more accolades for this young star.