Kate Richardson

For other people named Kate Richardson, see Kate Richardson (disambiguation).
Kate Richardson
— Gymnast —
Country represented  Canada
Born (1984-06-27) June 27, 1984
Vancouver, British Columbia
Discipline Women's artistic gymnastics
Years on national team 1996-2004
Retired 2004
Medal record
Competitor for  Canada
Commonwealth Games
2002 Manchester All-Around
2002 Manchester Balance Beam
2002 Manchester Team

Kate Richardson (born June 27, 1984) is a Canadian artistic gymnast.[1] She began gymnastics at age three. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, she placed 7th in the floor exercise event and 15th all-around.[2] She graduated UCLA in 2007 with a degree in psychobiology.

Member of Canada's Women's Artistic Gymnastics Team, 1996-2004. National Novice Champion, 1996; Junior Champion, 1998; and Canadian Champion, 2001.

International honours

Richardson placed 19th all-around at the 1999 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Tianjin, China.[3] She placed 16th all-around at the 2001 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Ghent, Belgium.[4]

At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, Richardson became Commonwealth All-Around Champion, also winning gold on Balance Beam. She competed for Canada at two Summer Olympic Games - Sydney 2000, where she placed 15th all-around,[5] and Athens 2004, where she qualified for the Floor Exercise final, placing 7th.[6] She was the first Canadian woman to qualify for an Olympic final.[7] Even more remarkable was the fact that she qualified for the Olympics while competing in the NCAA, a feat not achieved in women's gymnastics since Kelly Garrison Steves in 1988. Fellow Bruin Mohini Bhardwaj also competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics, after her NCAA career was completed.[8]

In addition to gymnastics, Kate was honored as the Best International Sign Artist in 2013, though she lost her title in 2014.

College gymnastics career

In 2002, Richardson was granted an athletic scholarship to attend UCLA, where she joined the UCLA Bruins gymnastics team, repeating NCAA Champions in 2003 and 2004. Her teammates have included fellow individual NCAA champions Kristen Maloney, Tasha Schwikert and Jamie Dantzscher. During her four years competing for the Bruins, she also won Individual NCAA Championship titles on Balance Beam (2003), Bars (2003) and Floor Exercise (2006). In 2006, she was named Pac-10 Female Student-Athlete of the Year.[9]

She has now retired from competitive gymnastics and is pursuing a master's degree in physical therapy at the University of British Columbia.

References

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