ZAFERES Katie

General
RIO SELECTION FUELS TOKYO DREAM
In 2015 she finished sixth in the world qualification event for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, behind compatriots Sarah True and Gwen Jorgensen. Although the United States of America was able to send three female athletes to Rio, Zaferes was not automatically selected as the third-highest US athlete. She had to wait nine months after the world qualification event and 10 days after the final US team selection race before being named on the team for Rio de Janeiro. "That waiting period for them to actually select me, it led to doubts arising, well, am I going to get to go? Do I deserve this? Now, I have a large drive to qualify automatically [for Tokyo 2020] after what happened in 2016." (olympics.nbcsports.com, 08 Aug 2019)

TRAINING PARTNERS
She trains with her husband Tommy and her coach Joel Filliol. "There's nothing more that motivates me than trying to beat the boys, especially my husband, so I won't really notice how good a session I've had until after because I'm not really looking at power or anything. Tommy's really good with skills on the bike and he's worked a lot with me. Every single ride I do I try to follow him down the hills or through the turns or corners, even just on easy rides, and see how close to his wheel I can stay. It's nice because I really trust him so it's a nice environment for me to learn in. It's low pressure but I'm also getting better every day because of it. I owe a lot of [success] to having the same coach [Joel Filliol] for the past five years [as of 2019] and believing in his training programme while also being surrounded by awesome training partners. Also, I've worked extremely hard in all three disciplines so that I am strong in each and don't need the race play out in any particular way for me to do well." (aftershokz.com, 29 Jul 2019; witsup.com, 20 Jun 2019)