Karen Shinkins competed in the women’s 400 metres and the women’s 4×400 metres relay at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

From Newbridge, Co. Kildare, Shinkins took up athletics aged seven after following her brother to Newbridge Athletic Club, winning her first race – the under-eights 60 metres at a county meet – and developing an immediate love for competition. A member of Dublin City Harriers, she went on to become eight-time Irish national outdoor champion and four-time indoor champion, competing at four consecutive World Championships from 1999 to 2005 and winning bronze at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Vienna in 2002.

Her personal bests of 51.07 seconds outdoors (1999) – the second fastest in Irish women’s history – and 51.58 seconds indoors (2002), which remains the Irish indoor record, reflect her standing as one of Ireland’s most accomplished 400 metre runners. She held a degree in Business Studies from Waterford Institute of Technology.

She retired mid-season in 2006, describing it as a mental rather than physical decision, and subsequently spoke with considerable candour about the difficulties of the transition out of elite sport – including depression and the challenge of re-entering the workforce after a decade-long gap in her CV.

She moved to Atlanta, Georgia, survived a plane crash in 2010, and subsequently built a career as a professional photographer. She is married with two children.