Karen Farrell is a wheelchair basketball player from Australia. She won two silver medals at the Paralympic Games

Paralympic Games

The Paralympic Games are a major international multi-sport event where athletes with a physical disability compete; this includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and Cerebral Palsy. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which are held immediately following their...

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Personal

Farrell is from Sydney, New South Wales. She became a paraplegic

Paraplegia

Paraplegia is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek: παραπληγίη "half-striking". It is usually the result of spinal cord injury or a congenital condition such as spina bifida that affects the neural elements of the spinal canal...

 at the age of fifteen, when a car she was a passenger in slid off the road after trying to pass a truck. At the time of the accident, she was not belted into her seat and sustained back, head and neck injuries. Other passengers in the car who were belted in had much less severe injuries. When she is not competing, she works as a Information Technology Consultant.

Basketball

Farrell is a New South Wales Institute of Sport athlete. She has been a member of the New South Wales women's state basketball team and competed at the national championships. In 2001, she was a scholarship holder at the Australian Institute of Sport

Australian Institute of Sport

The Australian Institute of Sport is a sports training institution in Australia with world class facilities and support services. The Institute's headquarters is situated in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. The 66.0 hectare site campus is in the northern suburb of Bruce, but some of the...

. In 2000, she was also sponsored by the Motor Accidents Authority in New South Wales.

National team

Farrell was a member of Australia's national team by 1994. That year and in 1998, she was part of the Australian team that finished third at the Gold Cup tournament. She was part of the silver medal winning Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team

Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team

-History: Women's wheelchair basketball was first played at the 1968 Summer Paralympics in Tel Aviv, but Australia did not have a team that competed until 1992 in Barcelona....

  at the 2004 Summer Paralympics

2004 Summer Paralympics

The 2004 Summer Paralympics were held in Athens, Greece, from September 17 to September 28. The twelfth Paralympic Games, an estimated 4,000 athletes took part in the Athens programme, with ages ranging from 11 to 66. Paralympic events had already taken place during the 2004 Summer Olympics as...

. She was part of the silver–medal winning Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team

Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team

-History: Women's wheelchair basketball was first played at the 1968 Summer Paralympics in Tel Aviv, but Australia did not have a team that competed until 1992 in Barcelona....

  at the 2000 Summer Paralympics

2000 Summer Paralympics

The 2000 Paralympic Games were held in Sydney, Australia, from 18 October to 29 October. The eleventh Summer Paralympic Games, an estimated 3800 athletes took part in the Sydney programme. They commenced with the opening ceremony on 18 October 2000...

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Club basketball

In 2008, Farrell played her club basketball of the Women's National Wheelchair Basketball League (WNWBL)'s Hills Hornets. Her team mates included Liesl Tesch

Liesl Tesch

Liesl Tesch is an Australian wheelchair basketball player. She has represented her country at five Paralympic Games, winning three total medals. She has made numerous appearances for her country at other wheelchair basketball events. Tesch also competed in the sport as a professional. She has...

, who was on the same team as Farrell when they earned their 2000 and 2004 Paralympic medals.