Karen Pickering

Karen Pickering
MBE

Personal information
Full name	Karen Denise Pickering
Nationality	British
Born	(1971-12-19) 19 December 1971 (age 53) Brighton and Hove, East Sussex
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Freestyle
Club	Ipswich Swim Club
Medal record World Championships – Long Course 2001 Fukuoka 4×200 m freestyle 2001 Fukuoka 4×100 m freestyle World Championships – Short Course 1993 Palma 200 m freestyle 1999 Hong Kong 4×100 m freestyle 2000 Athens 4×200 m freestyle 1999 Hong Kong 4×200 m freestyle 1993 Palma 100 m freestyle 2000 Athens 4×100 m freestyle European Championships – Long Course 1993 Sheffield 200 m freestyle 1993 Sheffield 4×200 m freestyle 1993 Sheffield 4×100 m medley 1995 Vienna 100 m freestyle 1995 Vienna 200 m freestyle 1995 Vienna 4×100 m freestyle 1997 Seville 4×100 m medley 1999 Istanbul 4×100 m freestyle 1999 Istanbul 4×100 m medley European Championships – Short Course 2000 Valencia 200 m freestyle 2000 Valencia 4×50 m freestyle 1998 Sheffield 4×50 m freestyle 1999 Lisbon 4×50 m freestyle Representing  England Commonwealth Games 1994 Victoria 100 m freestyle 1994 Victoria 4×100 m freestyle 2002 Manchester 200 m freestyle 2002 Manchester 4×200 m freestyle 1990 Auckland 4×100 m medley 1994 Victoria 4×100 m medley 1994 Victoria 4×200 m freestyle 1998 Kuala Lumpur 200 m freestyle 1998 Kuala Lumpur 4×100 m freestyle 1998 Kuala Lumpur 4×200 m freestyle 2002 Manchester 4×100 m freestyle 1990 Auckland 4×100 m freestyle 1994 Victoria 200 m freestyle

Karen Denise Pickering, MBE (born 19 December 1971) is a former competitive freestyle swimmer from Great Britain. Pickering was the first woman to win an individual World Championship gold medal in swimming for Great Britain at the 1993 FINA Short Course World Championships in the 200 metre freestyle,^[1] and was part of the team that won relay gold three times for Great Britain in both long course (2001) and short course (1999, 2000) world championships.

Swimming for England, she is a four-time Commonwealth Games champion, including individual titles in the 100 metre freestyle (1994) and 200 metre freestyle (2002).

Swimming career

She made her international senior debut in 1986. She was first selected to represent her country at the European Junior Championships. Pickering competed in four consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1992.

She won her first medal in 1993, at the inaugural 1993 FINA Short Course World Championships in Palma de Mallorca, where she won the gold medal in the 200 m freestyle. With that performance Pickering became Britain's first swimming world champion.^[2]

She was a member of the British swimming squad from 1986 to 2005 and has a collection that includes 8 World Championship medals (4 gold), 14 European Championship medals, 38 National Championship titles, and a Commonwealth Games medal haul of 13 including 4 gold. The 2002 Commonwealth Games saw Karen win three medals, two gold and one silver, in front of her home crowd, a career highlight which was crowned with the honour of carrying the English flag at the closing ceremony.

She is a two times winner of the British Championship in the 50 metres freestyle (1992 and 1993), seven times winner of the 100 metres freestyle (1989-1993, 1997, 2000), nine times winner of the 200 metres freestyle (1990, 1992–1995, 1997, 1999 and 2002–2003) and was the 400 metres freestyle champion in 1992, 2002 and 2003.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]}

Honours

For her services to swimming Karen was awarded an MBE in the 1994 New Years Honours List.^[2]

Pickering is now^[update] the Sports Ambassador for Ipswich in Suffolk,^[13] and chaired the British Athletes Commission between 2004 and 2016.^[14]

See also

• List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming (women)
• List of Commonwealth Games medallists in swimming (women)
• World record progression 4 × 200 metres freestyle relay

References

1. "Karen Pickering MBE to get University of Suffolk honorary degree". BBC News. 30 September 2025. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
2. "Westlake beats the champion". BBC Sport. 1 November 2004. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
3. ""For the Record." Times, 13 June 1992, p. 43". The Times. Times Digital Archive. 13 June 1992. p. 43.
4. ""For the Record." Times, 12 June 1993, p. 39". The Times. Times Digital Archive. 12 June 1993. p. 39.
5. Downes, Steven (14 July 1989). "Downes, Steven. "Parker's display shows he can be a masked marvel." Times, 14 July 1989, p. 47". The Times. Times Digital Archive. p. 47.
6. ""Results from Leeds." Times, 5 Aug. 1991, p. 30". The Times. Times Digital Archive. 5 August 1991. p. 30.^{[permanent dead link]}
7. ""Results from Sheffield." Times, 15 June 1992, p. 28". The Times. Times Digital Archive. 15 June 1992. p. 28.
8. ""For the Record." Times, 14 June 1993, p. 24". The Times. Times Digital Archive. 14 June 1993. p. 24.^{[permanent dead link]}
9. ""For the Record." Times, 28 July 1990, p. 31". The Times. Times Digital Archive. 28 July 1990. p. 31.
10. ""For the Record." Times, 1 Aug. 1994, p. 23". The Times. August 1994. p. 23.^{[permanent dead link]}
11. ""For the Record." Times, 21 July 1995, p. 38". The Times. 21 July 1995. p. 38.
12. ""For the Record." Times, 18 July 1997, p. 42". The Times. 18 July 1997. p. 42.
13. "Karen set to pitch in". Ipswich Star. 27 November 2008. Archived from the original on 3 December 2018. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
14. Heath, Sara (4 July 2016). "Interim Chair of the BAC Announced". The British Athletes Commission. Archived from the original on 4 April 2019. Retrieved 3 December 2018.

External links

• Official website