Award-winning sports broadcaster and beloved ABC Sport presenter Karen Tighe has announced she will leave the ABC to focus on her health.

Tighe was hospitalised with viral encephalitis in early 2020, a condition that Tighe said left her short-term memory "absolutely shot".

"I've always been a really positive person, but this has been probably the most challenging thing that I've ever gone through and it's something that just came completely out of the blue," Tighe said in an interview in December 2020.

Tighe joined the ABC in 1989 as part of the TV sports team, where she spent eight years as a sports researcher, broadcaster and presenter, anchoring golf, tennis, netball, and cycling amongst others.

In 1997 she made the move from TV to radio and became synonymous with the ABC's sport coverage as presenter of the national weekend sports program, Grandstand.

The move to radio fulfilled Tighe's dreams of covering the Olympics, working on the Sydney, Athens, Beijing and Rio Games, along with six Paralympic Games in Barcelona, Lillehammer, Atlanta, Sydney, Beijing and London.

Between 1991 and 1994, Tighe was part of the ABC TV sport comedy program Live and Sweaty, hosted by Andrew Denton and later by Libbi Gorr as Elle McFeast. After relocating to Perth in 2001, Tighe was the sports presenter on ABC TV Perth's weeknight news for six years.

"ABC TV and then Radio Sport have been my working home since March 1989 after the combination of a letter and little piece to camera on a VHS I had posted to then head of ABC TV sport David Salter asking for a job," Tighe said.

"I will forever be grateful for all the experiences and opportunities I have had in my time both in Sydney and all that was set up for me when marriage took me to Perth in 2001."

A trailblazer for female sports broadcasters, Tighe is the first person to win a Sport Australia Media Award twice, first in 2000 and again in 2001.

In February 2020, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sports Australia Media Awards in Sydney.

Tighe has become an advocate for encephalitis awareness in Australia by publicly sharing her experiences for World Encephalitis Day, which is coming up again on February 22.