![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753966091_383_grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Gary](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/6efe4240-6e19-11f0-89ea-4d6f9851f623.jpg.webp.webp\")
Gary Clarke<\/p>\nAlexandra Bassingham<\/p>\n
BBC News, West of England<\/p>\n
Claire Carter<\/p>\n
BBC Radio Somerset<\/p>\n
Gary Clarke<\/p>\n
Gary Clarke is the UK’s first disabled strongman and set up the British Disabled Strongman Competition in 2015<\/p>\n
The UK’s first disabled strongman is fundraising to secure the future of a national event for strongmen and strongwomen.<\/p>\n
Gary Clarke, 48, from Chard, Somerset, is a key organiser for the British Disabled Strongman Competition, which he set up in 2015 – but this year, it lost several major sponsors.<\/p>\n
Mr Clarke said weightlifting has improved his cerebral palsy and is keen to support others so they can benefit from the sport.<\/p>\n
He said: “The lifting has helped with my cerebral palsy 100% and I will always lift a barbell of some description. It’s ingrained in me\u2026 and it just makes sense to me.”<\/p>\n
The annual competition will take place in Uxbridge, London, on the 13-14 September.<\/p>\n
![\"Gary](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/c635ae90-6e19-11f0-af20-030418be2ca5.jpg.webp.webp\")
Gary Clarke<\/p>\n
Mr Clarke has cerebral palsy and competes in the seated class for people with restricted use of their limbs<\/p>\n
Mr Clarke was starved of oxygen when he was born three months prematurely. This traumatic birth left him with cerebral palsy.<\/p>\n
But after receiving extensive physio through his younger years, he was able to walk with crutches.<\/p>\n
He said he “always found a way” to achieve what he wants.<\/p>\n
“When I started doing weights, the gym was up a set of stairs so I found a way to get up on the crutches. It was the warm up I think,” he said.<\/p>\n
He progressed to power lifting and bench pressing for Great Britain then saw there was a Disabled Man Championship in Iceland in 2011.<\/p>\n
“It was unchartered territory,” he said. “It was tough. I remember doing the van pull on paving slabs that weren’t level and the tyres were let down as well.”<\/p>\n
‘Very proud’<\/p>\n
Mr Clarke competes in the seated class for people with restricted use of their limbs, which means he is only allowed to use his upper body.<\/p>\n
He said becoming the first person to represent Great Britain made him very proud.<\/p>\n
“The thing I want to get across is it’s not a tokenism thing, it’s hard,” he added.<\/p>\n
After training for about 20 years, he said he is more practical now and does not go “hell for leather”. <\/p>\n
“I train specifically for competitions and am more selective,” he added.<\/p>\n
He is urging people to donate to next year’s British Disabled Strongman Competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexandra Bassingham BBC News, West of England Claire Carter BBC Radio Somerset Gary Clarke Gary Clarke is the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-319520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114975576209369831","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}