Kathy Watt
# 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.

In 2015, she was an inaugural Cycling Australia Hall of Fame inductee.

## Palmarès

Source:

### 1990

    Commonwealth Games
       Road Race – 1st
       Track Pursuit – 2nd
    Giro d'Italia
       Final Overall GC – 3rd
       1 stage victory

### 1992

    Olympic Games
       Road Race – Gold Medal
       3 km Pursuit (track) – Silver
    Australian Road Race Championships – 1st

### 1994

    Giro d'Italia
       Final Overall GC – 2nd
       3 stage victories
    Giro del Piave – 1st
    Canberra Stage Race
       Final Overall GC – 1st
       5 stage victories

### 1995

    World Time Trial Championship – 3rd

### 1996

    Australian Championships
       Road Race – 2nd place
       Time Trial – 1st place

### 1997

    Oceania Championships
       Road Race – 2nd place
       Time Trial – 1st place

### 1998

    World Time Trial Championship – 6th
    GP des Nations Time Trial – 2nd
    Grande Boucle (Tour Cycliste Féminin)
       stage 12b – 3rd
    Tour Féminin de Bretagne
       Overall – 2nd
       Prologue – 2nd
       stage 1 – 1st
       stage 5 – 2nd
    Grazia Tour
       Overall – 2nd
       stage 2 – 2nd
       stage 3 – 3rd
       stage 4 – 1st
    Tour de l'Aude
       Overall – 7th
       Prologue (Gruissan) – 2nd
       stage 5 (Castelnaudary TT)- 2nd
       stage 6a (Axat to Belcaire) – 2nd
    GP Presov and Pravda
       Overall – 1st
       stage 1 (TT) – 1st
       stage 2 (Criterium) – 2nd
       stage 3 (Road Race) – 3rd
       stage 4 (Road Race) – 3rd

### 1999

    Tour de 'Toona
       Overall – 2nd
       stage 2 – 3rd
       stage 4 – 2nd
       stage 5 – 1st
    Grazia Tour
       Overall – 7th
       stage 3 – 3rd
    Women's Challenge
       stage 4 (Sun Valley Time Trial) – 5th
       stage 9 (Burley to Buhl) – 2nd
    Tour de Snowy
       stage 5 – 3rd

### 2005

    Chrono Champenois – 1st
    GP International Feminin Bretagne (cat. 2) – 2nd GC
    Thuringen-Rundfahrt (cat. 1) – stage

### 2006 (Lotto-Belisol Ladiesteam)

    Commonwealth Games
       Individual road time trial – 2nd
       Australian Open Road Championship Time Trial – 1st

### 2007

    Australian Open Road Championship
       Time Trial – 2nd
       Road Race – 9th
    1st Overall Tour de Perth

### 2008

    Australian Open Road Championship
       Time Trial – 4th
       Road Race – 19th
