Having competed at four Summer Olympics successively and holding a total of eight gold medals, Pickering is considered a legend within freestyle swimming.
In the early stages of her career, Karen was selected to represent England at the impressive age of 15. She swam at the 1986 European Junior Championships and had established herself as a world-renowned name by the 1992 Olympics. At the beginning of a long list of achievements, Pickering won her first medal in 1993. She won a gold medal in the 200m freestyle event at the FINA Short Course World Championships, this spectacular performance is what earnt her the spot as Britain’s first swimming world champion.
An international career that spanned 19 years, Pickering has amassed a staggering eight World Championship, 14 European Championship and 13 Commonwealth Games medals. She has also harvested an astonishing 38 National Championship titles and was honored to carry the English flag at the closing ceremony of the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
Swapping out the pool for the boardroom, Pickering represented the Summer Olympics area of the British Athletics Commission for 12 years, whilst continuing to channel her sporting passion as the Sports Ambassador for Ipswich. She was awarded an MBE in the 1994 New Years Honours List for her efforts to swimming, highlighting her highly regarded platform within athletics.
Karen Pickering MBE offers an incredibly unique inspirational speech. With a wealth of athletic experience, she is able to deliver the tips and tricks that helped her to thrive within swimming. She is also able to tailor her advice to businesses and relate it to university or school students in order to help people all across the UK to become more ambitious and more driven to reach their goals.
A world-renowned name, inspiration to athletes and an expert in achieving peak performance, Karen Pickering MBE is the perfect addition to any event in search of an effective motivational speaker. She uses a collection of captivating anecdotes from her extremely successful career to empower her audience and show them how she went from good to great with a little bit of drive and determination.
