Clarke was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. He first tried canoeing during a trip with The Scout Association at the age of eight. He then applied to join the Stafford and Stone Canoe Club, but was rejected for being too young. He was given the chance to reapply through his middle school's canoeing club during year six at Walton Priory Middle School, but as they only had eight places available which were greatly oversubscribed he was required to write a letter to demonstrate why he deserved a place. His application was successful and he began training with the club, competing in his first race in 2004 at the age of 11. Clarke attended Alleyne's Academyhigh school, after going to his middle school Walton Priory Middle School. At the age of 15 he contracted bacterial meningitis which caused an abscess behind one eye. He was in hospital for two weeks and was treated with intravenous antibiotics, after which he made a full recovery.
Career
Clarke made his debut for the British junior team in 2009, winning junior European Championship silver medals in the K1 team event in 2009 and 2010. He has trained at the Lee Valley White Water Centre since 2012. He won a European Championship under-23 silver medal in the individual K1 in 2013, and World Championship silver medals in the under-23 team event in 2013 and 2014. At senior level, he won three medals in the K1 team event at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships with a gold and two bronzes. He also won two silver medals in the same event at the 2014 and 2015 European Championships. Clarke was selected for the 2016 Summer Olympics after winning the individual K1 at the British selection trials in October 2015. At the Olympics he qualified for the final of the K1 event with the third fastest time in the semifinal. He won gold in the final with a time of 88.53 seconds, the first time a British competitor had won gold in this event. Clarke was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to canoeing. In 2018, Clarke guest starred in the third episode of the fourth series of the CBBC children cooking showMatilda and the Ramsay Bunch. Clarke narrowly missed out on selection for the tokyo 2020 olympics. Following the postponement of the games, Clarke tried to force British Canoeing to abandon the selected athletes and have a new selection process for the olympic team. Unfortunately for Clarke this idea was rejected and British Canoeing have decided to stand by the existing team selection to allow these athletes to focus on the postponed games.
