Claire Taggart (born 11 February 1995) is a UK Paralympic

Boccia Boccia ( ) is a precision ball sport, similar to bocce, and related to bowls and pétanque. The name "boccia" is derived from the Latin word for "boss" – '. The sport is contested at local, national and international levels, by athletes ...

player and

stationer Stationery refers to commercially manufactured writing materials, including cut paper, envelopes, writing implements, continuous form paper, and other office supplies. Stationery includes materials to be written on by hand (e.g., letter paper) ...

from Larne, Northern Ireland. As of 2023 Claire is ranked 1st in the BC2 rankings, She is also a fan of local

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

team

Larne F.C. Larne Football Club is a professional Northern Irish football club based in Larne, County Antrim that play in the NIFL Premiership. History The club was founded in 1889 and plays its home matches at Inver Park. The club's colours are red and w ...

and regularly does speeches and interviews at Half Time of matches talking about her triumphs in Boccia

Life

Taggart is from

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic Ireland, Gaelic territory) is a town on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, with a population of 18,755 at the United Kingdom census, 2011, 2011 Census. It is a major passenger and freight Roll-on/ro ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. She was identified as a BC2 boccia player in 2014. She was named with David Smith, Nigel Murray and Joshua Rowe as part of the UK's Boccia team. She was 21 when competed at the

Rio Paralympics ) , nations = 159 , athletes = 4,342 , opening = 7 September , closing = 18 September , opened_by = President Michel Temer , cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva , events = 528 in 22 sports , stadium = Maracanã , sum ...

in 2016. No one from Northern Ireland had competed in a Paralympic boccia event before. She would later call her dog Rio. Taggart runs her own stationery business. She won a silver medal at the European Championships in Seville in 2019 where she was beaten by

Francis Rombouts Francis Rombouts (22 June 1631 – 1691) was the 12th Mayor of New York City, (formerly New Amsterdam), from 1679 to 1680. He was one of three proprietors of the Rombout Patent, and father of pioneering Colonial businesswoman Catheryna Rombout Br ...

from Belgium. Taggart was in the three person team with Reegan Stevenson and David Smith that received gold medals. The three of them beat the team from Slovakia 4–3 in the final. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

she had to keep fit by training in her hallway for four months. In January 2020 she was appointed as the accessability officer at

initially in an advisory role. In 2022, Taggert secured two gold medals at the Boccia World Cup in Portugal. and later the same year, gold in the Boccia World Championships in Rio. Taggart is supported by the Mary Peters Trust.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taggart, Claire 1995 births Living people Sportswomen from Northern Ireland Boccia players Boccia players at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Boccia players at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Sportspeople from Larne Paralympic athletes for Great Britain People educated at Larne Grammar School