Kathy Watt's name is a recurring theme in the annals of Australian cycling history but it's her 1992 Barcelona road race gold medal that is arguably the standout achievement of her illustrious career. The gold medal was Australia's first in an Olympic road race and as the nation's first at the Spanish games, Watt's name resonates beyond the cycling world down under with a place in its sporting memory.
It was almost a magic gold medal double for Watt in Barcelona as the then 27-year-old followed up her upset success on the road with silver in the 3,000m pursuit despite only training for the road in the months beforehand.
With the Rio Olympic Games starting in just under 50 days and in the middle our of Women's Week, Cyclingnews looks back at Watt historic gold medal success.
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Watt's preparation for the Games was less than ideal in 1992 with national coach Charlie Walsh 'banning' her from training on the track. However, Walsh's insistence that Watt forget about being a tourist during the 1991 Barcelona test event provided her with crucial information on how to ride the course and where to make her move.
"The year before I went to the pre-Olympics after the Tour de France and finished fifth in the road race which gave me good ideas of the course," Watt told Cyclingnews from her Melbourne bike store. "One girl, a French girl, got away so I could see where people got out of sight and it helped me with my tactics and I knew time gaps and things on the course. I stuffed up the sprint but ended up fourth in the bunch sprint on an uphill finish, which really suited me. I thought I could get a medal either in a sprint or breaking away.
"We went to the track and I finished fifth which put me off so I said I am going sightseeing but the coach told me ‘not you're not. You're going down with pen and paper and seeing what the others do differently,'" she recounted. "I saw that some used different gears and maybe warmed up a little bit harder which I incorporated into what I did at the Olympics a year after."
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