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Christopher P. Michel
Karen has kayaked through Alaska’s Inner Passage and cycled from Tibet to Nepal, in spite of paralysis from the chest down. After claiming silver in London she squeezed in (and filmed) an Iron Man contest as part of her build up to Rio, and then took gold in the Paralympics (despite losing a year’s training after being hit by a car). Karen shows how we can best understand ourselves and others by attempting challenges. The emotions they untap aren’t signs of weakness, they help us heal: “Listening to yourself and dealing with fear makes you stronger.”
View / Submit“One of the most inspiring speeches we’ve ever heard.”
Association of Colleges
Karen Darke is a Paralympic gold medallist, explorer, and mindset coach dedicated to redefining limits and unlocking human potential. A keen runner and mountaineer, her life took an unexpected turn at 21 when a climbing accident left her paralysed from the chest down. Determined to embrace challenge rather than be defined by it, she set out on a series of extraordinary adventures that have taken her across some of the world’s most extreme environments.
Karen has hand-cycled over the Himalayas, traversed the Tien Shan and Karakoram mountains of Central Asia, and kayaked 1,200 miles along the Canada-Alaska coastline. She has skied the Valle Blanche and completed a 600km traverse of Greenland’s ice cap, enduring -40°C temperatures and 200mph winds. Her remarkable feats prove time and again that barriers—whether physical or mental—are meant to be broken.
Her athletic career is equally inspiring. Despite only taking up para-cycling four years before the London 2012 Paralympics, Karen won silver in the H1-2 time trial, delivering one of the most memorable moments of the Games by crossing the finish line hand-in-hand with her training partner. After a serious accident in 2013 left her unable to use her right arm for a year, she defied expectations once again—returning to elite sport and winning gold in the Rio 2016 H2-3 time trial.
Blending personal experience with insights from high-performance psychology, Karen shares powerful lessons on resilience, mindset, and overcoming adversity. She inspires audiences to shift their perceptions of challenging situations, reframing adversity as an opportunity for growth, as well as covering how to build sustainable high-performance.
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Karen’s achievements since her accident stretch from extreme adventure to elite sport. If the basic premise of a motivational speech is to inspire you to adapt to the situation and scale new heights, it never feels more real than when listening to Karen. She’s been though such a horrific chain of events, yet remains defiantly positive. It feels like a real privilege to hear her story.
JLA Agent Allan Grant
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