Katie Hayward

Student, 2013/2014

Katie attended Elanora High School in 2013 and 2014 before moving to St. Andrews Lutheran College.

Katie joined Gold Coast Little Athletics at the age of 10. She was always very active and did a range of sports, including nippers, surf lifesaving, dancing, soccer and touch football. At Little Athletics she participated in a walking race and won. As she got older Katie regularly broke high quality national records, particularly the U18 5000m and U20 10,000m.

In May 2018, at age 17 , Katie made her international debut in the under-20 race at the World Race Walking Cup in China. In that same year, Katie competed in the women's 10,000 metres walk at the IAAF World U20 Championships held in Tampere, Finland. She finished in 5th place with a personal best of 45:10.42, This was Australia's best place in the event for 10 years.

Later in February 2019 Katie competed in her first 20km event in Adelaide and won in a new Australian record 1h 29 mins . Katie’s time in this event qualified her to compete in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan where she finished 37th in a 60 women field.

In June 2019, Katie won the silver medal in the women's 10,000 metres walk at the Oceania Athletics Championships held in Townsville, Australia. The following month, she won the gold medal in the women's 20 kilometres walk event at the Summer Universiade held in Naples, Italy. In the same year, Katie also competed in the women's 20 kilometres walk event at the World Athletics Championships held in Doha, Qatar.

In the years 2016 to 2022 Katie had a number of top 10 finishes in walking races for distances ranging from 5000 metres to 20kms. In 2016 Katie while at school was the No.1 ranked under 18 female walker in the world and held a number of Queensland and Australian all-school records.

Katie graduated form Griffith University on the 13 December, 2023. She is currently working at Caboolture Hospital as an Occupational Therapist. Katie decided to complete her studies and not go to the 2024 Paris Olympics. She currently runs in long running races namely the Noosa Marathon where she finished 10th this year. She continues to train in the gym and running 4-5 days a week to keep fit. She is undecided about returning to race walking.