Kathleen Smith (archer)
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. 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 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona. She joined Anita Chapman and Rebecca Gale to gain a bronze medal for the UK in the women’s archery team open. At these games Chapman also won a silver medal. She had surgery in 1999 and she thought this might rule her out of competition, but at the 2000 Summer Paralympics she was again in Britain 's team of three archers who competed for the women’s archery team open and this time they took the silver. Chapman gained a gold medal and Smith gained an individual silver in the women’s individual W1/W2 behind Paola Fantato of Italy. Four years later Smith won her fourth and last medal which was gold. She gained the gold in the women’s archery team open and again Anita Chapman was a team mate. She was a competitor at five Paralympics, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008. 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. 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.