| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality | Canadian | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 1950or1951(age 72–73) [1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Canada | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Karen McPherson (born in 1951) is a Canadian retired Paralympic athlete. She won three medals in swimming events at the 1968 Summer Paralympics, held in Tel Aviv.
McPherson became paraplegic in infancy, after surviving polio. [2] She used arm crutches, leg braces, and a wheelchair. [3] [4] She was a student at Vancouver's Little Flower Academy, [4] [1] and attended Vancouver City College. [5]
McPherson competed in the first Pan American Wheelchair Games, held in Winnipeg in 1967, and won seven gold medals in swimming events. [4] [6] She won three medals in the 1968 Summer Paralympics, held in Tel Aviv. [1] [7] She was the youngest British Columbian on the Canadian national team. [8] In 1969, she swam on a relay team with Gwen John, Hilda Binns, and Elaine Ell, [9] and won seven medals at the Pan-American Wheelchair Games in Buenos Aires. [5] [10] In 1971 she competed in the Western Washington Wheelchair Games in Seattle, setting a record in the backstroke event. [3] In 1973, she broke two national records at the B.C. Wheelchair Games. [11] [12] She held seven national Canadian records in 1974, [13]
McPherson was nominated for Junior Athlete of the Year by the Vancouver Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1969. [14] She was active in the British Columbia Wheelchair Sports Association in its early years. [3]
The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, are held almost immediately following the respective Olympic Games. All Paralympic Games are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
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Gary Leslie Hooper, MBE is an Australian Paralympic competitor. He won seven medals at three Paralympics from 1960 to 1968.
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Diane Rakiecki is a Canadian Class 4 wheelchair racer, wheelchair basketball player and wheelchair tennis player who competed in the Paralympic Games and the World Athletics Championships. She won medals in national and regional Canadian wheelchair championships and the World Wheelchair Games. Rakiecki won the women's exhibition 800 metres wheelchair competition at the 1987 World Championships in Athletics in Rome and helped the Canada women's national wheelchair basketball team to win the bronze medal at the 1990 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in France and the gold medal in the women's wheelchair basketball tournament at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona. She finished second in the first ever officially recognized women's handcycle race of the New York City Marathon at the 2000 edition.
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Heather Kuttai is a Canadian SH3-classified Paralympic shooter who competed in the Paralympic Games. She won two silver medals in each of the women's air pistol 2–6 and the mixed air pistol team open competitions at the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul, and a bronze medal in the mixed air pistol SH1–3 event at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona. Kuttai is an 2009 inductee of the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame.
Lorna VindenAnderson, born Lorna Margaret Skidmore, was a Canadian wheelchair athlete, competing in pentathlon, track and field, archery, and swimming events at the 1967 and 1969 Wheelchair Pan American Games, and the 1968 Paralympics in Tel Aviv.
Marilyn Warren Woods was an American activist and community leader. In her fifties, she competed in field events at two Pan American Wheelchair Games, and in the 1968 Summer Paralympics.
Rosalie Joyce Hixson, later Rosalie Wiherin, was an American wheelchair athlete. She earned medals at the 1964, 1968, 1972, and 1976 Paralympic Games.
Evelyn Marie Mulry Moore was an American athlete who won two gold medals in swimming events at the 1964 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo and a gold and two silver medals at the 1968 Summer Paralympics in Tel Aviv. She also competed in field events at the National Wheelchair Games in the 1960s and 1970s. She was inducted into the National Wheelchair Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 1978.
Christa Zander Welger was a German-born wheelchair athlete. She represented West Germany and later the United States in various international events.
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