Clare Griffiths née Strange (born 18 September 1979) is a 1.5 point British wheelchair basketball player who represented Great Britain at the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games.
 Clare Griffiths at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality |  Great Britain | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 18 September 1979 High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 167 cm (5 ft 6 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 56 kg (8 st 11 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Great Britain | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Wheelchair basketball | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Disability class | 1.5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event | Women's team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Coyotes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Biography edit
Clare Strange was born in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, on 18 September 1979,[1][2] the daughter of Jeremy and Caroline Strange.[3] She played county hockey, and represented her school in the National Indoor Championships. She also rode horses,[4] representing southern England at the Mounted Games in 1996 and 1997.[2] In 1997, she broke her back in a fall from a horse, rendering her paraplegic.[5] She was introduced to wheelchair basketball during rehabilitation at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. A year later, she made her international debut as a 1.5 point player for Team Great Britain at the Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in Sydney, Australia.[4]
Since then, Strange, who married Daniel Griffiths on 13 July 2013 at St Mary's Church in Radnage,[3] and is now known as Clare Griffiths, has represented Britain at the 2000 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games. In London in 2012, she was co-captain of the team, along with Louise Sugden.[4] In Rio de Janeiro in 2016, although no longer captain, she was, at 36, the oldest member of the side.[6] She also earned seven bronze medals at European championships, and played professional wheelchair basketball in Italy with Sardinia Sassari, one of the first British women to do so.[4] She also earned a bachelor's degree in Sport and Exercise Science from Loughborough University in 2003.[4]
In May 2016, she was named as part of the team for the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.[7] The British team produced its best ever performance at the Paralympics, making it all the way to the semi-finals, but lost to the semi-final to the United States, and then the bronze medal match to the Netherlands.[8]
Achievements edit
- 1998: Seventh at Wheelchair Basketball World Championship (Sydney, Australia) [4]
- 1999: Bronze at European Wheelchair Basketball Championship (Roermond, Netherlands) [4]
- 2000: Eighth at 2000 Paralympic Games (Sydney, Australia) [4]
- 2002: Eighth at Wheelchair Basketball World Championship (Kitakyushu, Japan) [4]
- 2003: Bronze at European Wheelchair Basketball Championship (Hamburg, Germany) [4]
- 2004: Eighth at 2004 Paralympic Games (Athens, Greece) [4]
- 2005: Fourth at European Wheelchair Basketball Championship (Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France) [4]
- 2007: Bronze at European Wheelchair Basketball Championship (Wetzlar, Netherlands) [4]
- 2008: Eighth at 2008 Paralympic Games (Beijing, China) [4]
- 2009: Bronze at European Wheelchair Basketball Championship (Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom) [4]
- 2010: Sixth at 2010 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship (Birmingham, United Kingdom) [4]
- 2011: Bronze at European Wheelchair Basketball Championship (Nazareth, Israel) [4]
- 2012: Seventh at 2012 Paralympic Games (London, United Kingdom) [4]
- 2013: Bronze at European Championships (Frankfurt, Germany) [4]
- 2014: Fifth at the World Wheelchair Basketball Championship (Toronto, Canada) [4]
- 2015: Bronze at the European Championships (Worcester, England) [9]
References edit
- ^ "Clare Strange - Paralympics GB - London 2012 Olympics". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 February 2012. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
- ^ a b "Athlete Bio: Griffiths, Clare". International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 13 September 2016.[dead link]
- ^ a b "Daniel Griffiths Clare Strange : Wedding". Lancaster Guardian. 2 August 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t "Clare Griffiths". British Wheelchair Basketball. Retrieved 11 September 2016.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "A Strange guide to wheelchair hoops". BBC. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
- ^ "Rio Paralympics: Clare Griffiths set for fifth Games". 13 May 2016. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
- ^ "British women's wheelchair basketball team named for Rio". International Paralympic Committee. 13 May 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
- ^ Berkeley, Geoff (17 September 2016). "University of Worcester-based GB women's wheelchair basketball team miss out on bronze medal to dominant Dutch in Rio Paralympics". Worcester News. Retrieved 18 September 2016.
- ^ "Germany earn 10th women's European Wheelchair Basketball Championship title as hosts Britain win men's gold". Inside the Games. 6 September 2015. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
