Kate Richardson is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 artistic gymnast

Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...

. She began gymnastics at age three. At the 2004 Summer Olympics

2004 Summer Olympics

The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...

, she placed 7th in the floor exercise event and 15th all-around. 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

1999 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships

The 34th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships were held at Tianjin Arena in Tianjin, China in 1999.-All-around:-Apparatus:-All-around:-Apparatus:...

 in Tianjin

Tianjin

' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. She placed 16th all-around at the 2001 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships

2001 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships

The 35th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships were held in Ghent, Belgium, in 2001 at the Flanders Sports Arena. This was the first Worlds at which the 6-3-3—six athletes per team, three compete, all three scores count—format was used in team finals...

 in Ghent

Ghent

Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...

, Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

.

At the 2002 Commonwealth Games

Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 and takes place every four years....

 in Manchester, England, Richardson became Commonwealth

Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...

 All-Around Champion, also winning gold on Balance Beam

Balance beam (gymnastics)

The balance beam is an artistic gymnastics apparatus, as well as the event performed using the apparatus. Both the apparatus and the event are sometimes referred to as simply "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is BB....

. She competed for Canada at two Summer Olympic Games - Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 2000, where she placed 15th all-around, and Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 2004, where she qualified for the Floor Exercise

Floor (gymnastics)

In gymnastics, the floor refers to a specially prepared exercise surface, which is considered an apparatus. It is used by both male and female gymnasts. The event in gymnastics performed on floor is called floor exercise. The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is FX.A spring...

 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 NCAA, a feat not achieved in women's gymnastics since Kelly Garrison Steves in 1988. Fellow Bruin Mohini Bhardwaj

Mohini Bhardwaj

Mohini Bhardwaj is a retired American gymnast who competed at the 1997 and 2001 World Championships and earned a team silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens...

 also competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics, after her NCAA career was completed.

College gymnastics career

In 2002, Richardson was granted an athletic scholarship

Scholarship

A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...

 to attend UCLA, where she joined the Bruins gymnastics team, repeating NCAA Champions in 2003 and 2004. Her teammates have included fellow individual NCAA champions Kristen Maloney

Kristen Maloney

Kristin Ann Maloney , also known as Kristen Maloney, is a retired gymnast from Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, United States, who was coached by Jack Carter in the 2000 Olympics and won bronze in the Team Event. Maloney was also the U.S...

, Tasha Schwikert

Tasha Schwikert

Tasha Schwikert Warren is an American gymnast who is a 2000 Olympic bronze medalist, a World Gymnastics Championships team gold medalist, the 2001 and 2002 U.S...

 and Jamie Dantzscher

Jamie Dantzscher

Jamie Annette Dantzscher is a retired American gymnast. She was a member of the bronze medal winning US team at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney...

. 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.

She has now retired from competitive gymnastics and is pursuing a Masters degree in Physical Therapy at the University of British Columbia.