WATSON Sage

Date of Birth: 20 Jun 1994

Age: 27

Gender: Female

Place of birth: MEDICINE HAT, AB

Birth Country:

Canada

Place of residence : TUCSON, AZ

Residence Country:

United States of America

Events and Medals
Records
Schedule
Bio
General Interest
Milestones

Events and Medals

Discipline	Event	Rank	Medal
Athletics	Women's 400m Hurdles
	Women's 4 x 400m Relay CAN Canada	4

Schedule

Start Time	Location	Event	Status
	Olympic Stadium - Track	Women's 400m Hurdles Round 1 - Heat 1	Finished
	Olympic Stadium - Track	Women's 400m Hurdles Semi-Final 1	Finished
	Olympic Stadium - Track	Women's 4 x 400m Relay Round 1 - Heat 2	Finished
	Olympic Stadium - Track	Women's 4 x 400m Relay Final	Finished

Biographical Information

Highlights

Olympic Games

Year	Location	400m Hurdles	4 x 400m
2016	Rio de Janeiro, BRA	SF (55.44)	4th (3:26.43)

World Athletics Championships

Year	Location	400m Hurdles	4 x 400m
2019	Doha, QAT	8th (54.82)	8th (DQ)
2017	London, GBR	6th (54.92)	-
2015	Beijing, CHN	SF (56.38)	8th (3:27.69)

World Relays

Year	Location	4 x 400m
2019	Yokohama, JPN	4th (3:28.21)

Pan American Games

Year	Location	400m Hurdles	4 x 400m
2019	Lima, PER	1st (55.16)	2nd (3:27.01)

Diamond League overview - Three best ranks per season and event since 2017

Year	400m Hurdles
2021	1 x 7th
2020	1 x 5th
2019	2 x 7th
2018	2 x 3rd, 1 x 4th, 1 x 5th

Diamond League - Ten best performances since 2020

Rank	Year	Event	Location	Result
3	2018	400m Hurdles	Oslo, NOR	54.55
3	2018	400m Hurdles	Shanghai, CHN	55.23
4	2018	400m Hurdles	Eugene, OR, USA	54.81
5	2020	400m Hurdles	Stockholm, SWE	56.31
5	2018	400m Hurdles	Birmingham, GBR	57.11
7	2021	400m Hurdles	Oslo, NOR	56.52
7	2019	400m Hurdles	London, GBR	55.32
7	2019	400m Hurdles	Rome, ITA	55.71
7	2018	400m Hurdles	Zurich, SUI	55.57
8	2018	400m Hurdles	London, GBR	56.21

World Athletics Continental Tour - Ten best performances since 2020

Rank	Year	Event	Competition	Location	Result
3	2020	400m Hurdles	World Athletics Continental Tour	Szekesfehervar, HUN	56.29
6	2021	400m Hurdles	World Athletics Continental Tour	Walnut, CA, USA	56.28
7	2021	400m Hurdles	World Athletics Continental Tour	Szekesfehervar, HUN	56.32

World Challenge - Ten best performances since 2020

Rank	Year	Event	Competition	Location	Result
1	2018	400m Hurdles	World Challenge	Osaka, JPN	55.58
1	2017	400m Hurdles	World Challenge	Madrid, ESP	54.59

Legend
SF - Semifinal, QF - Quarterfinal, 1R - 1st Round, Qual. - Qualification, QR - Qualification Round, DNF - Did Not Finish, DNS - Did Not Start, DQ - Disqualified, NM - No Mark, [Relay athlete without time] - Did not run in final

Yoga, cooking, spending time with her dog, horse riding. (Twitter profile, 05 Nov 2019; olympic.ca, 01 Apr 2018)

Occupation:

Marketing - University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

Languages spoken:

Fred Harvey [personal], from 2015

In July 2018 she began suffering from a combination of foot injuries, including bone chips and a fracture. (tuscon.com, 30 Sep 2019)

In 2014 while studying at Florida State University in the United States of America, she competed in three indoor meets before suffering a season-ending foot injury. (olympic.ca, 01 May 2016; seminoles.com, 01 Feb 2014)

She took up running on a gravel road near her home in Medicine Hat, AB, Canada, where she grew up on a ranch. She was inspired to compete at the Olympic Games after watching Canadian athletes on television at the 2004 Games in Athens. (thesun.co.uk, 10 Apr 2018; olympic.ca, 01 Apr 2018)

"I grew up on a ranch in southern Alberta, Canada. From a young age I loved sports, especially running. My mother introduced me to running at a young age as she was always training to stay fit for the police force. I always longed to go running with her on her long runs but I was just too little to keep up. Once I started to grow up my parents influenced me to compete in track and field. I wanted to get better at running - not just to win, but because I loved it." (sagewatson.org, 31 Mar 2019)

To compete at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. (sagewatson.org, 31 Mar 2019)

She trains twice a day. She does strength work in the mornings, and then running and hurdles training in the afternoons. (canadabeef.ca, 09 Mar 2020)

Coach Fred Harvey. (tuscon.com, 30 Sep 2019; spikes.worldathletics.org, 11 Sep 2019)

She always wears red lipstick when she competes, and collects coffee mugs from different countries she travels to. "[Wearing lipstick when racing] is for me, it's not trying to please anybody else. I started using it as a way to boost my confidence. All the women in my family were wearing it when they cheered me on at the [2016] Olympics. It's kind of been my thing, that's part of my uniform now is my red lipstick." (medicinehatnews.com, 02 Jan 2020; olympic.ca, 01 Apr 2018)

Philosophy:

"The track is my 'happy place'." (Twitter profile, 18 Jan 2020)

While studying at University of Arizona in the United States of America from 2015 to 2017, she achieved First Team All-American honours on four occasions. While studying at Florida State University in 2014, she achieved Second Team All-American honours once. (arizonawildcats.com, 01 Jan 2018; seminoles.com, 01 Jan 2015)

General Interest

General
BODY IMAGE
She battled body image issues as a teenager, and has said that one of her main goals is to help other young girls be happy in their bodies. "Until I watched the Olympics in 2004 on TV, I didn't know I was a fit to be a sprinter. I was always so self-conscious of my body in junior high and going into high school. I was just this skinny girl and I was so self-conscious about it. So many people spend so much time disliking their body and any apparent imperfections. It's understandable, but then you think, 'Why would I hate on my body? This body made me become an Olympian, this body made me become a professional athlete'. So I want to say to girls, 'Don't hate your body because you don't know yet what it's capable of. It's what makes you, 'you', and no matter what your body looks like, you should love it and treat it with respect'." (spikes.worldathletics.org, 11 Sep 2019)

FOOT INJURY
In July 2018 she began experiencing a series of foot injuries, including bone chips and a fracture. She talked to numerous doctors about surgery but decided against it as she and her coach Fred Harvey could not see how she could run effectively again with the surgery that was recommended. In May 2019, with her foot still in pain, she tried corrective therapy. "It was a process. It was very technical exercises for foot mobility, corrective manoeuvring and soft tissue work. We had to help align the foot. It finally got sorted out." (tuscon.com, 30 Sep 2019)

PAN AM GOLD
After finishing first in the 400m hurdles at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, she was initially disqualified for an alleged lane violation. However, after appealing the decision her result was reinstated. "There were really a lot of emotions in that moment. They thought I stepped on the line. We appealed it and our video footage showed I didn't and they reinstated my gold. It took almost 30 minutes, it was a long time. In that moment I was upset, but I didn't think I did anything wrong. I was confident I would be reinstated." (tuscon.com, 30 Sep 2019)

COACHING
She has worked as a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Arizona, where she was previously a student. (arizonawildcats.com, 01 Sep 2019)

Social Media

Ask.fm: http://ask.fm/Sagewatson
https://www.facebook.com/sage.watson
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/sagewats/
https://instagram.com/sagewatson
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sagewatson
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/sagewats/
https://twitter.com/SageWats
Athlete Website: https://www.sagewatson.org/blog

Legend

:: Gold Medal Event
:: Silver Medal Event
:: Bronze Medal Event

Timing and scoring provided by OMEGA. Results powered by Atos