Kayla Clarke

Kayla Clarke (born 6 August 1991) is an Indigenous Australian swimmer who represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in swimming, and has medalled at the 2010 Australian Disability Age Group Nationals, and 2010 International Paralympic Swimming World Championships, 2009 Queensland State Championships, 2009 Queensland Secondary School Titles, and 2009 Global Games. She competes in a number of events, including the 100m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley.

Personal Clarke was born in Silkstone, Queensland. She has an intellectual disability. She was a member of the Woogaroo Swimming Club, is involved in the Australian Institute of Sport program, One of her major swimming rivals is fellow Australian swimmer Taylor Corry.

At the 2009 Queensland State Championships, she won five gold medals in her classification races. The Queensland Secondary School Titles that year ended with her winning seven first-place finishes,

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. 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. 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.

Personal bests Personal bests as of 16 September 2012: