Karen Lee (swimmer)
Karen Barbara Lee is an English former competitive swimmer who represented Great Britain in the Olympics and European championships. She specialized in backstroke events. She finished sixth in the 200-metre backstroke at the 2002 European Short Course Swimming Championships in Riesa, Germany. She was also a member of Team GB starting in 1998, and a varsity swimmer for the Loughborough University team, under head coach Ben Titley.
Lee qualified for the women's 200-metre backstroke, as a member of Team GB, at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. She finished second behind Katy Sexton at the British Olympic Trials by 0.38 of a second, in a FINA A-standard of 2:11.86. She challenged seven other swimmers in heat four, including Germany's Antje Buschschulte and Russia's Stanislava Komarova, both of whom were top medal favorites. She faded to seventh place by a 5.39-second margin behind winner Komarova in 2:16.10. Lee missed the semifinals by nearly one second, as she placed twentieth overall in the preliminaries.
