Karen Phillips

This article is about the swimmer. For the soap opera character, see Karen Phillips (Coronation Street).

Karen Phillips

Personal information
Full name	Karen Anne Phillips
National team	Australia
Born	(1966-05-04) 4 May 1966 Nowra, New South Wales
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight	58 kg (128 lb)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Butterfly
Medal record Women's swimming Representing Australia Olympic Games 1984 Los Angeles 200 m butterfly Commonwealth Games 1986 Edinburgh 200 m butterfly 1986 Edinburgh 4 x 100 medley

Karen Anne Phillips (born 4 May 1966), known after marriage as Karen Anne Higgison, was an Australian butterfly and individual medley swimmer of the 1980s, who won the silver medal in the 200-metre butterfly at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Raised in Nowra, New South Wales, Phillips was selected to represent Australia in the 200-metre butterfly and 400-metre individual medley, but was not expected to do well, barely scraping into the final of the 200-metre butterfly, and narrowly missing the final of the 400-metre individual medley. Although she was left far behind by the United States' Mary T. Meagher, she swam a personal best of 2 minutes 10.56 seconds to claim the silver medal, although Meagher was 7 metres ahead.

Two years later at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland, Phillips enjoyed more success, winning the silver medal in the 200-metre butterfly and bronze medal in the 4 x 100 metre medley relay.

She was the inaugural winner of the Australian Institute of Sport Athlete of the Year in 1983–84.

See also

• List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)

Bibliography

• Andrews, Malcolm (2000). Australia at the Olympic Games. Sydney, New South Wales: ABC Books. p. 351. ISBN 0-7333-0884-8.

External links

• Profile