Kate Richardson

Education

She graduated University of California, Los Angeles in 2007 with a degree in psychobiology.

Career

She began gymnastics at age three. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, she placed 7th in the floor exercise event and 15th all-around. In 2002, Richardson was granted an athletic scholarship to attend University of California, Los Angeles, where she joined the University of California, Los Angeles Bruins gymnastics team, repeating National Collegiate Athletic Association Champions in 2003 and 2004.

Her teammates have included fellow individual National Collegiate Athletic Association champions Kristen Maloney, Tasha Schwikert and Jamie Dantzscher.

In 2006, she was named Pac-10 Female Student-Athlete of the Year. She has now retired from competitive gymnastics and is pursuing a master"s degree in physical therapy at the University of British Columbia.

Achievements

• Richardson placed 19th all-around at the 1999 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Tianjin, China. She placed 16th all-around at the 2001 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Ghent, Belgium. 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, and Athens 2004, where she qualified for the Floor Exercise final, placing 7th. She was the first Canadian woman to qualify for an Olympic final. Even more remarkable was the fact that she qualified for the Olympics while competing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, 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 National Collegiate Athletic Association career was completed. In addition to gymnastics, Kate was honored as the Best International Sign Artist in 2013, though she lost her title in 2014.

Membership

Member of Canada"s Women"s Artistic Gymnastics Team, 1996-2004.