Kate O'Brien
Personal information
Born (1988-07-23) 23 July 1988
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Height1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Weight70 kg (154 lb)
Team information
DisciplineTrack cycling
Medal record
Representing  Canada
Women's bobsleigh
World Championships
Bronze medal – third place2015 WinterbergMixed team
Women's para cycling
Paralympic Games
Silver medal – second place2020 TokyoC4-5 time trial
Track World Championships
Silver medal – second place2022 Saint-Quentin-en-YvelinesTime trial C4
Silver medal – second place2023 GlasgowTime trial C4
Pan American Games
Gold medal – first place 2015 TorontoTeam sprint
Silver medal – second place 2015 TorontoSprint
Track World Cup
Silver medal – second place2017 Los AngelesTeam sprint
Pan American Championships
Bronze medal – third place2015 SantiagoTeam sprint

Kate O'Brien (born 23 July 1988 in Calgary) is a Canadian female track cyclist and former bobsledder.[1] She won a silver medal at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.

Career

After being introduced to bobsleigh in 2010, O’Brien competed at the 2013 FIBT World Championships with pilot Jenny Ciochetti, but a torn hamstring took her out of the first half of the Olympic season and she missed qualifying as a bobsleigh brakeman for the 2014 Winter Olympics. She decided to try piloting a bobsled and attended driving school in Calgary in March 2014. At the same time, there was a testing camp for Cycling Canada at the Canadian Sport Institute. Having scored good test results, she was competing internationally within months. In September, she debuted at the Pan American Championships, finishing fifth in both the team sprint (with Monique Sullivan) and the keirin. O’Brien split 2014-15 between track cycling and bobsleigh, competing on both World Cup circuits as well as at both world championships. At the 2015 UCI Track Cycling World Championships,[2] she and Sullivan finished twelfth in the women's team sprint. In June 2015, she broke the 200 m time trial record that stood for 19 years at the Lehigh Valley Preferred Cycling Center in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania. By the following month, O'Brien and Sullivan set a track record to capture the women's sprint title at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto.[3] Moreover, she managed to add a silver to her Pan American Games career tally in the individual sprint race, with the gold going to her teammate Sullivan.[4]

In 2016, she was officially named to Canada's 2016 Olympic team.[5]

O'Brien claimed 5th place at the 2017 World Championships[6] (in the team sprint, with Amelia Walsh), and silver in the 2017 World Cup in L.A. She is the current Canadian record holder in the 500m time trial and in the team sprint.

In 2017 a disastrous training accident left her fighting for life and left her with extensive injuries. These included a severe head injury that left her unable to walk, talk or breathe unassisted. She was informed by her doctors that she would be unable to participate in sports again. She did not accept this and fought to recover, and despite having now been diagnosed as epileptic, has returned to the sport and has been inducted by the Canadian Para-Cycling team, where she continued her training before her debut with the team in the UCI Para Cycling Track Championships.[7] In this event, she set a new word record time for the C4 500m sprint and won a gold medal as well as a world record for the 200m time trial.[8][9] She continued her recovery and hopes to be named to the Canadian paralympic cycling team in 2020 [10] At the 2020 Summer Olympics, she finished second in the C4-5 500 metres time trial and did not finish in the road cycling time trial.[11][12]

Career results

2014
3rd Team Sprint, Copa Internacional de Pista (with Sara Byers)
2015
Pan American Games
1st Team Sprint (with Monique Sullivan)
2nd Sprint
Milton International Challenge
1st Team Sprint (with Monique Sullivan)
3rd Sprint
2nd Sprint, US Sprint GP
3rd Team Sprint, Pan American Track Championships (with Monique Sullivan)
2016
1st Keirin, Fastest Man on Wheels
Milton International Challenge
2nd Keirin
2nd Sprint
Festival of Speed
2nd Keirin
2nd Sprint
2017
5th Team Sprint, World Championships
2nd Sprint, US Sprint GP
2020
1st WR 500m Sprint
1st WR 200m Time trial

See also

  • Georgia Simmerling, Canadian track cyclist who has competed in Summer and Winter Olympics
  • Clara Hughes, Canadian cyclist who has competed in Summer and Winter Olympics

References

  1. ↑ Kate O’Brien
  2. ↑ "Kate O'Brien". sportuitslagen.org. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  3. ↑ "2015 Pan Am Games daily digest: Canada picks up gold in track cycling, tennis and badminton on day six". National Post. 16 July 2015. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  4. ↑ "Canada wins gold, silver in Pan Am cycling". The Sports Network. 19 July 2015. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  5. ↑ Tozer, Jamie (29 June 2016). "Returning Olympians highlight Canada's cycling team". www.olympic.ca. Canadian Olympic Committee. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
  6. ↑ "Kate O'Brien, Amelia Walsh sprint to 5th at track cycling worlds | CBC Sports". CBC. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  7. ↑ "kate obrien introduces herself para cycling world record performance". www.paralympic.ca. Canadian Olympic Committee. 30 January 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  8. ↑ "Official results Women C4 500m Time Trial Omni I - 2 Laps". www.tracktiming.live. UCI. 30 January 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  9. ↑ "Official results Women C4 200m Time Trial / Omni II - 200m - 3.5 Laps". www.tracktiming.live. UCI. 31 January 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  10. ↑ "Despite horrific bike crash, Para-cyclist Kate O'Brien refuses to quit chasing her dreams". Canadian Broadcast Corporation. 23 October 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  11. ↑ Dichter, Myles (28 August 2021). "How a life-altering accident led Canada's Kate O'Brien from 2016 Olympics to Paralympic podium". CBC Sports.
  12. ↑ "Cycling Track O'BRIEN Kate - Tokyo 2020 Paralympics". .. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
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