| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality | Canadian | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 29 September 1962 [1] North Bay, Ontario, Canada [2] | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Event | Compound | ||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Phil Henderson | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||
Karen Van Nest (born 29 September 1962) is a Canadian Paralympic archer and shooter. She is a Parapan American Games medalist and has competed in six Paralympic Games.
Van Nest is originally from North Bay, Ontario. [3] At age 23, she lost her left leg in a motorcycle accident. [3]
Van Nest began shooting in 1996. [4] She qualified for Canada’s Paralympic team in 1998, placing fourth at the 2000 Paralympics. She finished fifth at the 2004 Paralympics and tenth at the 2008 Paralympics. [5] In 2006, she won a bronze medal at the world championships in rowing. [4]
Van Nest began para archery in 2008, at the age of 46. [6] She switched from shooting to archery after she experienced problems with her right shoulder, [6] [7] and made her Paralympic archery debut at the 2012 Summer Paralympics. At the 2014 Pan Am Championships she won bronze in the women's compound open and silver in mixed team. [4] [8] She won silver at the 2015 Parapan American Games in women’s compound open, losing by eight points to Jane Karla Gögel of Brazil. [9] At the 2016 Summer Paralympics, Van Nest came fourth in the women's compound open. [10] Van Nest won gold in the women’s compound open at the 2017 Para Pan American Championships [11] and bronze in the same event at the Championships the following year. [12] She competed in archery at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. [13]
