{{Short description|British long-distance runner (1958–2021)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Use British English|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox sportsperson | name = Karen Nicolson<br>née MacLeod | image = | caption = | nationality = British (Scottish) | sport = Athletics | event = long distance | club = Edinburgh AC | birth_date = 4 April 1958 | birth_place = Skye, Scotland | death_date = 8 June 2021 (aged 63) | death_place = | height = | weight = | pb = }}
'''Karen Margaret Anne Nicolson''' ({{née}} '''MacLeod'''; 4 April 1958 – 8 June 2021) was a British long-distance runner. She represented Great Britain running the marathon at the 1996 Summer Olympics and 1993 World Championships in Athletics. She also represented her native Scotland in the 1994 Commonwealth Games marathon.
== Biography == Karen MacLeod grew up on Skye. After leaving Skye she came late into athletics, at the age of 24 running in the Bath Half Marathon to raise funds for cancer research, from which her father had died.<ref name=heraldmarathon>{{cite web|title=Karen Macleod: has won three of her five marathon starts|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12723456.Karen_Macleod__has_won_three_of_her_five_marathon_starts/|website=Herald Scotland|publisher=Herald Scotland|accessdate=9 October 2016|date=14 August 1993}}</ref>
MacLeod finished third behind Sue Crehan in the 10,000 metres event at the 1985 WAAA Championships<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0004941/19850728/615/0031 |title=Athletics |work=Sunday Express |date=28 July 1985 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |access-date=20 March 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nuts.org.uk/Champs/AAA/index.htm |title=AAA, WAAA and National Championships Medallists |website=National Union of Track Statisticians |access-date=20 March 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gbrathletics.com/bc/waaa.htm |title=AAA Championships (women) |website=GBR Athletics |access-date=20 March 2025 }}</ref> and took part in the world cross-country championships in 1985, 1986 and 1987. In 1987 she won the Scottish National cross-country Championship.<ref>{{cite web|title=National Crosscountry Champions Scotland|url=https://www.arrs.run/NC_XCSCO.htm|website=Association of Road Racing Statisticians|accessdate=9 October 2016}}</ref>
MacLeod ran the 10,000m at the 1990 Commonwealth Games finishing 12th in a race won by compatriot Liz McColgan. She then switched to the longer distance of marathon and enjoyed success in the early 1990s by winning the Bordeaux Marathon, Majorca Marathon and Seville Marathon.<ref name=heraldmarathon/> In the 1991 Carpi Marathon she finished 12th behind British athletes Andrea Wallace and Marian Sutton, and in the 1992 London Marathon she finished 22nd again behind Wallace and Sutton but also Julia Gates. These performances earned her a place at the 1993 World Championships in Athletics in which she finished 16th and only two minutes behind first Briton Marian Sutton.<ref>{{ARRS name | 1490}}</ref>
In 1994 MacLeod represented Scotland in the Commonwealth Games marathon in Victoria, running a personal best of 2:33:16 finishing fourth and less than a minute behind Yvonne Danson. She was selected for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, with Liz McColgan and Suzanne Rigg, finishing 45th in a time of 2:42:08, despite at 38 years being one of the oldest in the field.
MacLeod became an athletics coach, coaching the Skye runner Hugh Campbell.<ref>{{cite web|title=Campbell leads home record field in Skye half marathon|url=http://www.whfp.com/2014/06/20/campbell-leads-home-record-field-in-skye-half-marathon/|website=West Highland Free Press|publisher=West Highland Free Press|accessdate=10 October 2016|date=20 June 2014|archive-date=11 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011135902/http://www.whfp.com/2014/06/20/campbell-leads-home-record-field-in-skye-half-marathon/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In 2008, MacLeod revealed that she was suffering from Berger's disease, an acute kidney problem, and had to undergo emergency dialysis, eventually she had to receive a kidney transplant from her sister Deborah.<ref>{{cite web|title=MoonWalk: Stories of hope and triumph that will inspire you to think… pink|url=http://www.scotsman.com/news/moonwalk-stories-of-hope-and-triumph-that-will-inspire-you-to-think-pink-1-1351914|website=The Scotsman|publisher=The Scotsman|accessdate=10 October 2016|date=18 April 2009}}</ref><ref name="AWdeath">{{cite web|title=Olympic marathon runner Karen MacLeod dies |url=https://athleticsweekly.com/athletics-news/olympic-marathon-runner-karen-macleod-dies-1039945841/|website=Athletics Weekly|date=13 June 2021}}</ref>
She died on 8 June 2021, at the age of 63.<ref name="AWdeath" />
==Competition record== {| {{AchievementTable|Event=yes}} |- !colspan="6"|Representing {{GBR2}} and {{SCO}} |- |1988 |Reading Half Marathon |Reading, United Kingdom |1st |Half marathon |1:14:09 |- |1990 |Commonwealth Games |Auckland, New Zealand |12th |10,000m |34:24.71 |- |1991 |Bath Half Marathon |Bath, United Kingdom |1st |Half marathon |1:13:31 |- |1991 |Bordeaux Marathon |Bordeaux, France |1st |Marathon |2:38:06 |- |1991 |Great Scottish Run |Glasgow, United Kingdom |2nd |Marathon |1:14:22 |- |1991 |Carpi Marathon |Carpi, Emilia-Romagna, Italy |12th |Marathon |2:37:54 |- |1991 |Mallorca Marathon |Calvia, Spain |1st |Marathon |2:38:45 |- |1992 |London Marathon |London, United Kingdom |22nd |Marathon |2:41:35 |- |1993 |Seville Marathon |Seville, Spain |1st |Marathon |2:34:30 |- |1993 |Bristol Half Marathon |Bristol, United Kingdom |1st |Half marathon |1:15:00 |- |1993 |World Championships in Athletics |Stuttgart, Germany |16th |Marathon |2:41:46 |- |1993 |Stroud Half Marathon |Stroud, United Kingdom |1st |Half marathon |1:13:19 |- |1994 |Commonwealth Games |Victoria, Canada |4th |Marathon |2:33:16 (PB) |- |1994 |Stroud Half Marathon |Stroud, United Kingdom |1st |Half marathon |1:13:52 |- |1995 |Bath Half Marathon |Bath, United Kingdom |1st |Half marathon |1:14:17 |- |1996 |Summer Olympics |Atlanta, United States |45th |Marathon |2:42:08 |}
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{Power of 10 name | 41117}} *{{World Athletics}} *{{ARRS name | 1490}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20200418041157/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ma/karen-macleod-1.html Karen MacLeod profile at Sport-Reference]
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:MacLeod, Karen}} Category:1958 births Category:2021 deaths Category:Scottish women long-distance runners Category:British women long-distance runners Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Category:Olympic athletes for Great Britain Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1990 Commonwealth Games Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1994 Commonwealth Games Category:Commonwealth Games athletes for Scotland Category:Scottish women marathon runners Category:British women marathon runners Category:People from the Isle of Skye Category:Sportspeople from Scottish islands Category:20th-century Scottish sportswomen