In Bold: David Clarke
Football has been a part of David Clarke’s life for as long as he can remember.
“I was born into a family that loved football. My parents were from Liverpool so I had no choice but to follow Liverpool FC, which in the seventies and eighties was a good thing to do!” he remembers. “Football was always the thing for me.”
David has been blind since birth. However, he’s used his lived experience of disability to pave a way in the private sector, in professional sports and now as CEO of ParalympicsGB. He’s also represented his country 144 times in blind football, scoring a record 128 goals in the process.
So how did he go from being a young boy with limited opportunities to play the sport he loved, to representing his country at the 2012 Paralympic Games and now to leading an organisation that is at the forefront of building a more inclusive world?
We caught up with David ahead of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games to chat about his dual careers, the lessons he’s learnt along the way and the powerful role sport can play in creating a more inclusive society for people with disabilities.
Here's David’s story.
Growing bold
“There were no pathways for people like me to play football for my local town or school – and definitely not for my country,” recalls David. “So, my parents and teachers played a fundamental role in helping me feel excited about playing the sport I love.”
“I was born with congenital glaucoma. I had a little bit of useful sight when I was very young, but by the age of seven that had completely gone,” David explains. “I attended Wavertree Royal School For The Blind, which was an amazing experience. I had a teacher who created a football with ball bearings in it so that we could hear it and were able to play football.”
“Role models are a really important way of showing what’s possible. But as a blind or disabled person in those days, there weren’t many role models in sport – or none that I was aware of,” David recalls. “The attitude-defining experiences I had in my younger years came from my parents. They were very insistent that I would live an ordinary life and learn to do stuff like any other kid. It was incredibly empowering.”
Taking bold steps
After leaving school, David went on to have two careers that ran in tandem with each other. One career in banking that would see him go on to work at HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank - and one playing professional sport. He learnt valuable lessons from both.
“When I got my first role at HSBC all I had was my academic experience, as it wasn’t possible for me to work a summer job or do work experience at that time,” remembers David. “They told me that they were impressed, but they wanted me to know that they’d never done this before and that there would be challenges along the way – it was one of the most honest conversations I’ve ever had. I spent a brilliant eight years there and learnt a lot in that time about what additional technology I needed to do my job.”
“Alongside this, my professional sporting career was taking off too,” David says. “From 1995 to 2012 I went on to play 144 games for the England and Great Britain football teams, including for ParalympicsGB at the 2012 London Paralympics. I also spent 10 years playing international goalball, culminating in a trip to the Atlanta Paralympics.”
Bold, but bigger
“I was very happy at RNIB, but when the role of CEO at ParalympicsGB came up it felt like a dream job for me. And I can't tell you how delighted and privileged I feel to hold that role today,” David shares.
For David, the role that sport can play in changing society’s understanding of disabled people, and inspiring a better world in which they can live, is powerful; “During my lifetime attitudes towards Paralympic sport have really evolved, from sympathy, to empathy, to acceptance and now to enjoyment. People are starting to view it as the elite sport that it is and are actually consuming it. If you can understand and accept that a Paralympic athlete, a disabled person, can be an elite athlete then it shouldn’t be a huge jump to assume they can be elite in life too.”
“My mission, and the mission of our organisation, is to use sporting excellence to help the non-disabled public understand that people like me, and people like our athletes, aren’t hindered by our disability but instead by how society operates. What we hope is that seeing Paralympic athletes performing at an elite level on the field of play can be replicated elsewhere in terms of education, employment, health, social inclusion and financial independence.”
“From 1995 to 2012 I went on to play 144 games for the England and Great Britain football teams, including for ParalympicsGB at the 2012 London Paralympics.”
“If you can understand and accept that a Paralympic athlete, a disabled person, can be an elite athlete then it shouldn’t be a huge jump to assume they can be elite in life too.”
Fueling bold
In his role at ParalympicsGB, David doesn’t have to look far to find inspiration every day.
“It’s amazing to be working in an organisation where everyone's first instinct is positive,” he says. “The thing I’ve found most exciting is seeing the athletes perform, while also having a real understanding of what it takes to make that happen.”
On the subject of amazing performances, David credits England women’s national football team, the Lionesses, with inspiring the nation to think differently about sport; “I think what the Lionesses were able to achieve was phenomenal. They were under immense pressure but they inspired a whole generation of people to act differently - be that girls and women who want to take up football or sport, or men like me who really got into watching what is a brilliant spectacle.”
“You can only look and learn from what [the Lionesses] have done. They’ve demonstrated not only that huge societal change is needed, but that it can be done,” David continues. “We have a very similar issue. 75% of disabled kids still do not get access to sport in school, so we’re learning a lot from women’s football in terms of how we address that. If you said that 75% of all kids didn't have the opportunity to do sport there'd be a national outcry. We’re determined that they will be able to access sport, movement and activity by right.”
“75% of disabled kids still do not get access to sport in school, but we’re determined that they will be able to access sport, movement and activity by right.”
A bold future
So, what’s next for David?
“It's all eyes on Paris, really. We’re in the final throes of planning for that. This is my first Games as a CEO and I'm genuinely excited to learn a lot,” he shares.
Looking to the future more broadly, and as a society, David would encourage businesses to consider their hiring processes and approach to achieving true inclusivity when it comes to disabled members of their team.
“You would hope things were getting easier in terms of disability and employment, but things are actually getting worse,” explains David. “That seems counterintuitive, as businesses are constantly talking about wanting a more diverse workforce and many of them are putting in programmes to try and facilitate that. We really need businesses to set out their stall in terms of demanding action in their approach to recruitment .”
“I believe it’s true to say that just by living their lives, disabled people have to be incredibly innovative, adaptable and open to change. Disabled people will have solved more problems by 9am in just getting to work than many people will face in their entire day. I think there needs to be recognition by businesses that disability isn’t a ‘less than’ – it is an asset in so many ways.”
Thanks for reading
We hope you feel inspired by David’s story.
Hearing how the early encouragement he received, and opportunities to play the sport he loved, has inspired David to be an advocate for disabled people is a powerful reminder of how amazing things can happen when we open up sport – and society – for everyone.
“Disabled people will have solved more problems by 9am in just getting to work than many people will face in their entire day.”
