Erin
Cleaver

After winning a Paralympic medal on debut at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, there is no telling which bucket list item Erin Cleaver will tick off next.

Erin, who found her start in Para-athletics in 2013, was introduced to the world of elite sport in a baptism of fire at the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha, Qatar. Competing for her country was a scary prospect, but one which Erin ultimately relished, and she placed fourth in the women’s long jump T38 and fifth in the women’s 100m T38. Erin also contested the women’s 4x100m T35-38 with Isis Holt, Jodi Elkington-Jones and Ella Pardy, but they were disqualified for a baton change outside the takeover zone.

Returning to the international stage in 2016, the women’s 4x100m T35-38 relay team were determined not to make the same mistake twice. Three clean baton changes later and Erin had won her first Paralympic medal, a bronze. She has been riding the wave of momentum ever since.

In 2017, Erin tasted international success in long jump for the first time. Competing in the women’s long jump T38 at the World Para-athletics Championships in London, England, she won a silver medal, sharing the podium with gold medallist Olivia Breen (GBR) and bronze medallist Anna Trener-Wierciak (POL). Olivia and Erin again went one-two at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, QLD, with Taylor Doyle rounding out the top three.

After missing selection to the Australian team for the 2019 World Para-athletics Championship, Erin is more determined than ever to prove to Australian selectors that she has what it takes to represent her country at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.