Clare Bishop (formerly Cunningham; born 15 June 1977) is a retired Paralympic swimmer and triathlete who represented Great Britain. She was born without her left forearm. Bishop first swam in international competition at the age of 13, at the 1990 World Championships and Games for the Disabled in

Assen Assen () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands, and is the capital (politics), capital of the province of Drenthe. It received City rights in ...

, The Netherlands. At the

1992 Summer Paralympics The 1992 Summer Paralympics (; ) were the ninth Paralympic Games to be held. They were held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. In addition, the 1992 Paralympic Games for Persons with mental handicap were held immediately after the regular Paralymp ...

, Bishop won the Women's S9 50m freestyle event in what was then World Record time. She won silver medals in 100m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 4 × 100 m freestyle relay and 4 × 100 m medley relay events. She competed at the

1996 Summer Paralympics The 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, were held from August 16 to 25. It was the first Paralympics to get mass media sponsorship, and had a budget of USD $81 million. It was the first Paralympic Games where Internatio ...

but did not win a medal. She retired from swimming after the Atlanta Paralympic games. In 2006, Bishop turned to triathlon. Initially competing in age-group races against non-disabled triathletes, she discovered

paratriathlon Para triathlon is a variant of the triathlon for athletes with a physical disability. The sport is governed by World Triathlon (TRI; formerly known as the International Triathlon Union or ITU), and was first held as a Paralympic event at the 2016 S ...

in 2009. Classified as a TRI-4 (arm-impaired) paratriathlete, she became the 2009 ITU European Paratriathlon Champion and 2009 World Paratriathlon Champion in her class. She placed second at the ITU World Paratriathlon Championships in 2010, 2011, and 2012, and third in 2013 and 2014. In late 2012, Bishop was elected to the

International Triathlon Union World Triathlon, previously known as the International Triathlon Union (ITU), is the international governing body for the multi-sport disciplines of triathlon, duathlon, aquathlon and other nonstandard variations. It is recognised as the inte ...

Athletes Committee. She and South African Oswald Kydd, elected on the same day, are the first-ever paratriathlete representatives on the ITU Athletes Committee. Bishop competed in

paratriathlon at the 2016 Summer Paralympics The paratriathlon competitions at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro took place from 10 to 12 September 2016 at Fort Copacabana. Sixty athletes competed across two genders, and six events. This was the first Paralympic Games to fe ...

in the PT4 category and finished seventh. To prepare for Rio 2016, Bishop took a sabbatical from her career as a Chartered Accountant at

Deloitte Deloitte is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees, and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along wi ...

. She has a 2:1 MA Honours in English Language and Literature from the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

, Scotland. Since retiring, Bishop has gained an MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology with distinction from

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public university, public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university sinc ...

. Bishop is now using her wide range of experience of Paralympic sport in her role as Head of Athlete Services at the

British Paralympic Association The British Paralympic Association (BPA) is the National Paralympic Committee for ''Great Britain'' (GBR), and is responsible for the United Kingdom's participation in the Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodi ...

. The Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games were her second games as a member of

ParalympicsGB The British Paralympic Association (BPA) is the National Paralympic Committee for ''Great Britain'' (GBR), and is responsible for the United Kingdom's participation in the Paralympic Games. The BPA select, prepare, enter, fund and manage the ...

where, as Deputy Chef de Mission, she was responsible for all areas of team education, safeguarding, welfare and anti-doping. Bishop, alongside Sir Matthew Pinset, was recruited to the SportAid Board of Trustees at the start of 2023. She was appointed as a director for a three-year term.

References

External links

Clare Cunningham's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Clare Paralympic triathletes for Great Britain British female triathletes Paralympic swimmers for Great Britain Swimmers at the 1992 Summer Paralympics Swimmers at the 1996 Summer Paralympics Triathletes at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Paralympic gold medalists for Great Britain Paralympic silver medalists for Great Britain 1977 births Alumni of the University of St Andrews Living people People from Hillingdon Swimmers from the London Borough of Hillingdon Medalists at the 1992 Summer Paralympics British female freestyle swimmers Paralympic medalists in swimming British female butterfly swimmers British female backstroke swimmers S9-classified para swimmers Medalists at the World Para Swimming Championships English female backstroke swimmers English female freestyle swimmers English female butterfly swimmers English female medley swimmers British female medley swimmers 21st-century English sportswomen 20th-century English sportswomen