Triathlete gears up for sixth Paralympic Games

Claire Cashmore has competed in five previous Paralympic Games and won nine medals

A multi-medal-winning Paralympic athlete has said she is “in a really good place”, as she prepares for her sixth games.

Claire Cashmore, who was born without a lower left arm, has won nine Paralympic medals in swimming and triathlon races in her career so far.

The Kidderminster based athlete was honoured with an MBE in 2017 for her services to swimming after picking up a gold medal in the Rio Paralympics. This summer's games start in Paris on Wednesday.

“I know I’ve done the hard work, and I know I’ve given myself the best opportunity to stand on that start line and to deliver a performance,” she said.

'Love of the sport'

In a previous BBC interview, Ms Cashmore said she started swimming competitively at the age of 12, after being spotted at Wyre Forest Swimming Club in Kidderminster.

She competed in her first Paralympics in Athens in 2004 and she has won one gold, three silver, and four bronze medals as a swimmer.

In recent years she has switched to triathlon, winning a bronze medal at the Tokyo Paralympics in 2020.

Ms Cashmore, now aged 36 and a seasoned Paralympian, said in the lead-up to Paris she had strived “to go back to that younger self and remind myself why I started - for that love of doing the sport”.

She told BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester: “I feel in a really good place at the moment.