Karen Denise Pickering, MBE (born 19 December 1971) is a former freestyle swimmer from Great Britain.

With that performance Pickering became Britain's first swimming world champion.

The 2002 Commonwealth Games saw Karen win three medals, two gold and one silver, in front of her home crowd, a career highlight which was crowned with the honour of carrying the English flag at the closing ceremony.

[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] For her services to swimming Karen was awarded an MBE in the 1994 New Years Honours List.

[1] Pickering is now[update] the Sports Ambassador for Ipswich in Suffolk,[12] and chaired the British Athletes Commission between 2004 and 2016.