Kathleen Smith

Kathleen Smith or Kathy Critchlow-Smith is a British Paralympic archer who has competed at five Paralympics.

Life

It was the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona that first made Smith aware of international competition. She was one of the 21 women and 74 men there from 26 countries to compete at seven sports. Great Britain won no medals at archery that year. Smith saw that her competitors had coaches to encourage them. She had already met Ray Fields so on her return in 1994 she joined Sportsable which was a sports disability club in Maidenhead. Smith's motive was to gain Fields as a coach.

She concentrated on her archery skills and by 1996 she was considered an elite sportswoman and a contestant at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics. She joined Anita Chapman and Rebecca Gale to gain a bronze medal for Great Britain in the women’s archery team open. They took the Hungarian archer Tamas Gaspar under their wing as he aimed to get to the 2020 Summer Paralympics. They were both given lifetime achievement awards at the 8th Get Berkshire Active Awards by SportsAble. They are both qualified coaches and they give weekly coaching sessions.