 2016 Australian Paralympic team portrait | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Claire Keefer |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Born | (1995-05-05)5 May 1995 (age 30) |
Claire Keefer (born 5 May 1995) is ashort stature athlete from Australia. She represented Australia at the2016 Rio Paralympics in athletics where she won a bronze medal.[1] She has won a silver and bronze medal at theWorld Para Athletics Championships.
She was born on 5 May 1995 withachondroplasia and is a person of short stature.[2] Her parents Lindsay and Sue Keefer live inWithcott, Queensland.[3] She attended St Ursula College in Toowoomba.[4] She lives mostly inWithcott, Queensland. She works part-time as a child care worker.[3]
Keefer competes in theF41 classification and started athletics in 2009.[2] She was ineligible to compete at the2012 London Paralympics due to being under 18.[2] In the F41 classicification the only athletics events for women are thediscus throw andshot put.[3] in 2015, Keefer won the silver medal in discus and bronze medal in shot put at an IPC Grand Prix meet inDubai.[5]
At the2015 IPC Athletics World Championships inDoha, she won the bronze medal in the Women's Shot Put F41 with a national record throw of 7.62m. She finished fourth in the Women's Discus F41.[6] She has received financial assistance from Aim For the Stars Foundation, the Layne Beachley Foundation.[7]She visits theQueensland Academy of Sport inBrisbane four times per week to undertake technical coaching.[3] Her philosophy is "Strength in size".[2]
She won a bronze medal at the2016 Rio Paralympics in the Women's Shout Put F41 with a throw of 8.16 m.[8]
At the2017 World Para Athletics Championships inLondon,England, she won the silver medal in the Women's Shot Put F41 with a throw of 8.44m.[9] At the2019 World Para Athletics Championships inDubai, she threw the shot put 9.19 to win the bronze medal Women's Shot Put F41.
Keefer announced her retirement from competition in April 2021.[10][11]
