Karen Phillips

This article is about the swimmer. For the soap opera character from Coronation Street formerly named Karen Phillips, see Karen McDonald.

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 m butterfly at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

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

Two years later at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Phillips enjoyed more success, winning silver in the 200 m butterfly.

References

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