Karen Lo is an author, keynote speaker, practitioner, university lecturer, and Hong Kong’s renowned expert in Applied Sport and Performance Psychology. Named the 2023 Global Impact Award winner by the Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development in recognition of her outstanding achievement and significant global contribution to the field of sports psychology, she has served as a driving force for promoting ethical sports psychology services in Asia this past decade. Her work has been featured on GB News, South China Morning Post, Radio Television Hong Kong, TVB, NowTV, ViuTV, Sportsroad, and many more. She has presented internationally and published books, book chapters, and popular articles related to athletes and mental health, sport psychology for youth, resilience, sports parenting, coaching psychology, and motivation.
Karen’s passion for Sport and Performance Psychology stemmed from her 7 years as a Hong Kong National swimmer and Hong Kong Sports Institute scholarship athlete. She was awarded the Outstanding Swimmers Award by both the Hong Kong Amateur Swimming Association and the Hong Kong Sports Institute and was considered an Olympic hopeful in her teenage years. While the mental pressure cost her that opportunity, it inspired her to break the stigma around Sport Psychology and help athletes of all levels harness the power of their minds to reach their full potential – through founding Hong Kong-based Sport and Performance Psychology consulting company, Inner Edge.
Karen wrote the first two Sport Psychology books in Hong Kong - Sport Psychology: Building Self-confidence and Maximizing Potential (Arcadia Press, in Chinese) and Sport Psychology 2: Are You Just An Athlete? (Arcadia Press, in Chinese). The first book has been shortlisted for the Hong Kong Education City Secondary School's 10th Best Books book award in the Year 2020. She is also a contributing author of three well-known English reference books in Sport Psychology, Building Consulting Skills for Sport and Performance: An International Case Study Collection by Routledge, Mindfulness and Performance by Cambridge University Press, and Performance Excellence: Stories of Success from the Real World of Sport and Exercise Psychology by Rowman & Littlefield.
One of the highlights of her career was speaking at the South China Morning Post Women of Our Time 2022 event, where 50 female entrepreneurs in Asia were chosen to share their success stories on how they pursued their dreams while trying to break free from stigmas and stereotypes: Pushing the boundaries of what’s possible: Journey to becoming the first Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC®) of the Association of Applied Sport Psychology in the Greater China Area. Many Asians find it hard to believe that can pursue their dreams while balancing family expectations, and there’s nothing Karen loves more than inspiring them to understand that they can do both!
