Claire Keefer (Qld)

DOB:  May 1995

Age: 

Classification: F41
Coach: Mick Morris
Occupation: Childcare Worker
International Experience:
2 x World Championships (2015, 2017),
1 x Paralympic Games (2016)

Born with achondroplasia, Claire Keefer has shown incredible promise as a Paralympic thrower since beginning her athletics career at 14.

Claire was delivering a message to her brother’s athletics coach when, on hearing that she didn’t participate in athletics because she couldn’t run, he encouraged her to try throwing.

The following year she began training with a coach who specialised in working with athletes with a disability, and after performing exceptionally well at the 2010 Australian Athletes with a Disability Championships in Canberra, where she would have qualified for the 2011 IPC World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand had she been older (classification for short stature athletes is determined by the limb length to height ratio, and given her age, she may still have been growing), Claire was thrilled to be invited to join the Open division.

The Withcott local worked hard to improve her technique, and at the 2015 IPC Athletics Grand Prix in Dubai, UAE, she achieved a silver and bronze medal finish in discus and shot put, respectively.

Representing Australia again in both events at her Paralympic debut in Rio, Claire stunned her competitors with bronze in shot put, a moment which ranks among the highlights of her whirlwind career to date.

Claire currently works as a childcare worker, but in 10 years’ time she hopes to have completed a degree in either education or childhood psychology.