Rhiannon Clarke (athletics) won bronze in the women’s 100m T38 at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. It was her second consecutive podium in the event after coming from the clouds to win silver on the Gold Coast in 2018, the then 15-year-old Perth schoolgirl being the youngest athlete from any country to win a Para-sport medal at those Games.

Clarke was born with cerebral palsy caused by a lack of oxygen to her brain while developing in the womb. She started in athletics after attending a ‘Come and Try Day’ in 2014. Although she had broken several national junior records, she never expected to qualify for the Gold Coast 2018 Games, then went on to claim dual bronze in the 100m and 200m T38 at the World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai the following year. Rhiannon was a finalist in both the 100m and 400m T38 at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics then won her first world championships medal – silver in the 400m T38 – in Paris in 2023. However, she narrowly missed the podium in both the 100m and 400m at her second Paralympics a year later in the same city.

Rhiannon was awarded a Pierre de Coubertin Award by the Australian Olympic Committee in 2018, an honour given to high school students who display strong character and ideals both in and outside of sport. Off the track, she enjoys equestrian events as well as ballroom dancing and is studying wildlife conservation at the University of Western Australia.