Caitlin Ward

Caitlin Ward was born in Frankston, Victoria, on 1 February 1994. She has a master's degree in Physiotherapy from Flinders University in Adelaide.^[1] She runs track sessions for AusCycling in South Australia and co-owns JKT Coaching.^[2]

Ward became interested in cycling after participating in the Around the Bay in a Day in 2005 and the Great Victorian Bike Ride in 2006 when she was in the fifth grade at primary school.^[1][3]

She was sidelined between 2015 and 2018 with a series of injuries including glandular fever and a broken ankle after a gym accident in which it was crushed by a 250 kilogram leg press,^[4] but she came back to win the women's sprint and keirin at the Australian national titles in 2019.^[5] She represented Australia at the 2019–20 UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Brisbane but missed out on selection for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.^[1]

In 2022, Ward became the sighted pilot for blind Paralympian Jessica Gallagher at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where they won gold in the tandem B sprint and tandem time trial B at London's Lee Valley VeloPark. At the 2023 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Glasgow the following year they won silver medals in both events.^[1] At the 2024 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in March 2024, they won bronze in the tandem B Sprint and the 1 km time trial.^[6][7]

Ward was selected as pilot for Gallager at the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris,^[8] where they won silver in the Women's B 1000m Time Trial.^[9]