Kathy Watt

Kathryn ("Kathy") Ann Watt (born 11 September 1964) is an Australian racing cyclist who won two medals at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain (gold in the road race, and silver in the pursuit). She has won 24 national championships in road racing, track racing, and mountain bike, four Commonwealth Games gold medals, and came third in the world time trial championship. She was made a life member of Blackburn Cycling Club in 1990. She was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.

The daughter of marathoner Geoff Watt, Kathy Watt turned first to running, winning the national junior 3 km championship. She began to train on a bike after achilles tendon problems. For a while, she competed in duathlon (running and cycling), but found she was a better cyclist than runner.

In 1996, Watt was in a legal dispute with the Australian Cycling Federation over who would race the pursuit in the Olympic Games. Watt had been told that she would be but was replaced a few days before the event by Lucy Tyler-Sharman. Watt appealed to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport, claiming a breach of contract. The court ordered Watt to be reinstated in the race.

In 2000, Watt again became involved in a controversy over a selection, but this time she was not successful in her appeal to the CAS.

She retired after 2000 but came back three years later but was not successful in an attempt to qualify for the 2004 Olympics. After another retirement, Watt worked as a coach and personal trainer. However, she made another comeback to qualify for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, where she won a silver medal in the time trial. In January 2006, she won the time trial section of the Australian open road championship in Buninyong, Ballarat.

Watt holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Melbourne, with a major in physiology and pathology. She studied nutrition, anatomy, and physiotherapy. She attended Tintern Church of England Girls' Grammar, now Tintern Grammar.

Awards and recognition In 2015, Watt was an inaugural Cycling Australia Hall of Fame inductee. She was inducted onto the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2019.

Major results Source:

1990 Commonwealth Games

3rd Overall Giro d'Italia Femminile 1 stage victory 1992 Olympic Games

1st Road race, National Road Championships 1994 2nd Overall Giro d'Italia Femminile 1st Prologue, Stages 1 & 3b (ITT) 1st Giro del Piave 1st Overall Canberra Stage Race 5 stage victories 1995

1996 National Road Championships 1st Time trial 2nd Road race 1997 Oceania Championships

1998 1st Overall GP Presov and Pravda 1st Stage 1 (ITT) 2nd Overall Tour de Bretagne 1st Stage 1 2nd Overall Grazia Tour 1st Stage 4 2nd Grand Prix des Nations 6th Time trial, UCI Road World Championships 7th Overall Tour de l'Aude 1999 2nd Overall International Tour de Toona 1st Stage 5 7th Overall Grazia Tour 2005 1st Chrono Champenois 1st Stage 2 Thuringen–Rundfahrt 2nd Overall GP International Feminin Bretagne 2006 1st Time trial, National Road Championships

2007 1st Overall Tour de Perth 2nd Time trial, National Road Championships 2008 4th Time trial, National Road Championships