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

Life

It was the

1992 Summer Paralympics )( es, Deporte Sin Límites) , nations = 82 (BCN)75 (MAD) , athletes = 3,020 (BCN)1,600 (MAD) , opened_by = Queen Sofía , opening = 3 September (BCN)15 September (MAD) , closing = 14 September (BCN)22 September (MAD) , even ...

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 Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England, on the southwestern bank of the River Thames. It had an estimated population of 70,374 and forms part of the border with southern Bu ...

. Smith's motive was to gain Fields as a coach. Fields had become disabled when he was 70 years old. She concentrated on her archery skills and by 1996 she was considered an elite sportswoman and a contestant at the

1996 Atlanta Paralympics The 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, were held from August 16 to 25. It was the first Paralympics to get mass media sponsorship, and had a budget of USD $81 million. It was the first Paralympic Games where Internatio ...

. She joined

Anita Chapman Anita Chapman MBE (born 3 July 1952) is a British Paralympic archer who won medals at four Paralympics. Career In individual medals she won silver at the 1996 Summer Paralympics she joined Kathleen Smith and Rebecca Gale to gain a bronze meda ...

and Rebecca Gale to gain a bronze medal for Great Britain in the women’s archery team open. At these Games, Chapman also won a silver medal. Smith had surgery in 1999 and thought this might rule her out of competition, but at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics she was again in Britain's team of three archers who competed for the women’s archery team open, winning the silver. Smith gained an individual silver in the women’s individual W1/W2 behind

Paola Fantato Paola Fantato (13 September 1959) is an Italian former archer, who won 8 medals (5 gold) at the Summer Paralympics. She participated also in the 1996 Summer Olympics. Biography At age 8 she contracted poliomyelitis, and has been a wheelchair us ...

of Italy. Four years later at the

2004 Athens Paralympics ) , nations = 136 , athletes = 3,806 , events = 519 in 19 sports , opening = 17 September , closing = 28 September , opened_by = President Costis Stephanopoulos , cauldron = Georgios Toptsis , stadium = Olympic ...

, Smith won her fourth and last medal, winning the gold in the women’s archery team open with Chapman again as a team mate. She was a competitor at five Paralympics,

Barcelona 1992 The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

, Atalanta 1996,

Sydney 2000 The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

Athens 2004 The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

and

Beijing 2008 The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

Private Life

She is married to Gary Critchlow-Smith who volunteers as an archery tutor. Both she and her husband are long tern supporters of sports for those with disabilities. They took the Hungarian archer Tamas Gaspar under their wing as he aimed to get to the

2020 Summer Paralympics The , branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, was an international multi-sport parasports event held from 24 August to 5 September 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. They were the 16th Summer Paralympic Games as organized by the International Paralym ...

. 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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Kathleen Living people British female archers Year of birth missing (living people) Paralympic archers for Great Britain Paralympic gold medalists for Great Britain Paralympic silver medalists for Great Britain Paralympic bronze medalists for Great Britain Paralympic medalists in archery Archers at the 1996 Summer Paralympics Archers at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Archers at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2004 Summer Paralympics 20th-century British women 21st-century British women