KAREN DARKE MBE - Adventurer / Athlete

Karen Darke is a British Paralympic Gold Medallist, adventurer and author who has pursued an ambitious programme of challenges with remarkable determination. Karen was a keen runner and mountaineer (as a young woman she climbed Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn), but was paralysed from the chest down following an accident, aged 21, whilst sea cliff climbing. Karen has since become the first paraplegic woman to handcycle across the Himalayas, sea kayak from Canada to Alaska (1500km, 2003), ski across the Greenland icecap (a trip of over 600 kilometres, 2006), and to climb the kilometre high overhanging rock-face of El Capitan. She has also hand-cycled in various corners of the world including the Silk Route, the length of Japan and across Tibet. 
 
At the 2012 Summer Paralympics, Karen won a silver medal in the Women's road time trial and somewhat controversially crossed the finish line of the Women's road race holding hands with her teammate who was awarded the bronze medal.  Later that year, she competed in her first ITU Paratriathlon World Championships and won the gold medal in her TRI-1 classification.
 
Karen continued to compete as a professional athlete with the British Paracycling Team, and went on to better her London 2012 result when she won the gold medal in Rio 2016. In 2017, Karen was awarded the MBE for services to sport, cycling in particular.

Karen is now gearing up for a new expedition, which will see her ski from the Antarctic adventure base at Union Glacier to a ‘new pole’, at 79 degrees latitude and longitude, in order to complete her Quest 79, a personal challenge to cycle seven continents, in nine rides, raising £79k for spinal injury charities. 79 is also the atomic number for gold, representing the ability within ourselves to be the best we can be.
 
Karen is an extraordinary human being who has touched the lives of many through her spirit for adventure, her determination and positivity in finding new ways to excel.