Kathy Watt

Kathy Watt

Kathy Watt (1999)
To person
Full name	Kathryn Anne Watt
Nickname	Kathy
Date of birth	11th September 1964 (age 55)
nation	Australia
discipline	Road / train
End of career	2009
Most important successes
Olympic games 1992 - road racing 1992 - Individual pursuit
Last updated: September 26, 2018

Kathryn Anne "Kathy" Watt (born September 11, 1964 in Warragul ), called Kathy, is a former Australian cyclist . In 1992 she became an Olympic road race champion and a two-time winner of the Commonwealth Games . She was the dominant Australian cyclist of her generation and won 24 Australian championships. She is also an award-winning photographer .

Athletic career

Kathy Watt is the daughter of the Australian marathon runner Geoff Watt. The father died in 1969 while training on Mount Erica in Baw Baw National Park after getting lost in the snow. Daughter Kathy was initially also active as a long-distance runner - she was the Australian junior champion over 3000 meters - until tendon problems forced her to switch to cycling.

In 1990, Kathy Watt won the gold medal in road racing at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland . Two years later she also won gold in road racing at the Olympic Games in Barcelona; this was Australia's first ever Olympic gold medal in road cycling. A few days later she won the silver medal in the single pursuit , in the final she lost to the German Petra Rossner . She became the most successful Australian cyclist at the Olympic Games to date. Australian head coach Charlie Walsh had previously expected her - although qualified for both disciplines - to prepare exclusively for the road competition and forbid her to train on the track . This led to the first of further arguments between Watt and Walsh in the following years.

At the Commonwealth Games in 1994 Watt was able to repeat their success in road racing. In 1995 she won bronze in the individual time trial at the road world championships in Colombia and thus the first Australian world championship medal in this discipline. In 1996 she qualified again for the Olympic Games ; She finished fourth in the individual time trial and ninth in the road race.

In 2000, Kathy Watt resigned from active cycling, only to try unsuccessfully three years later to qualify for the Olympic Games in Athens . On her second comeback, she won the silver medal in the individual time trial at the Commonwealth Games in March 2006 at the age of 41 (and thus her fourth medal since 1990) and qualified again for the World Championships in Salzburg in September 2006. There she finished 28th in the individual time trial .

In total, Kathy Watt was Australian cycling champion 24 times and she was national double champion in individual time trials and road races three times. She also won national titles in athletics , duathlon , cross-country biathlon and in Rogaine .

Professional

Kathy Watt also works as a photojournalist . As such, she won the Institute of Professional Photography's Silver Award for a photo by Andre Agassi and other prizes. In 2012 she was one of the official photographers for the Olympic Games in London appointed. She also runs a personal training company together with former track cycling world champion Stephen McGlede .

Honors

In 2015, Kathy Watt was one of the first members of the newly established Cycling Australia Hall of Fame .

Palmarès

Street

1990

• Commonwealth Games Winner - Road Race

1992

• Olympic Champion - Road Race
• Australian Champion - Road Race, Individual Time Trial

1993

• Australian Champion - Road Race, Individual Time Trial

1994

• Commonwealth Games Winner - Road Race
• Prologue and two stages Giro d'Italia Femminile
• Overall standings, prologue and four stages Canberra Tour
• Overall ranking and four stages of the Vysocina Tour
• Giro del Piave
• Australian Champion - Road Race, Individual Time Trial

1995

• World Championship - Individual Time Trial
• Overall standings and four stages of the Bay Cycling Classic

1996

• Australian Champion - Individual Time Trial

1998

• Commonwealth Games - Individual Time Trial
• Australian Champion - Road Race

2005

• Oceania Games - Individual Time Trial
• Chrono Champenois - Trophée Européen

2006

• Commonwealth Games - Individual Time Trial
• Australian Champion - Individual Time Trial

2007

• Oceania Games - Individual Time Trial
• Overall standings and four stages of the Tour de Perth

train

1992

• Olympic Games - One's Pursuit

Web links

• Kathy Watt in the database of Radsportseiten.net
• Kathy Watt in the ProCyclingStats.com database
• Australian Olympic Committee: Kathryn Watt. In: corporate.olympics.com.au. November 11, 2015, accessed April 23, 2017 . 
• Kathy Watts website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Zeb Woodpower: Remembering Kathy Watt's 1992 Olympic Gold Medal -. In: cyclingnews.com. June 19, 2016, accessed April 23, 2017 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Australian Olympic Committee: Kathryn Watt. In: corporate.olympics.com.au. November 11, 2015, accessed April 23, 2017 . 
3. ↑ The Kathy Watt Saga Continued ... In: autobus.cyclingnews.com. Retrieved April 23, 2017 . 
4. ↑ About Kathy Watt - Watt Shotz. In: wattshotz.com. Retrieved April 23, 2017 (English). 
5. ↑ About Kathy Watt's Personal Trainers. In: kathywatt.com. Retrieved July 31, 2017 . 
6. ^ Inaugural Cycling Australia Hall of Fame inductees. (No longer available online.) In: cycling.org.au. September 24, 2016, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on April 23, 2017 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.