Sage Watson

Biography

Sage Watson made her Olympic debut at Rio 2016 where she advanced to the semifinals of the 400m hurdles and anchored Canada to a fourth-place finish in the 4x400m relay. She repeated those results in her second Olympic appearance at Tokyo 2020, where the 4x400m relay team missed the podium by just six-tenths of a second.

Watson won three medals as the captain of the Canadian team at the 2013 Junior Pan American Championships where she captured gold in the 400m hurdles, silver in the 4x400m relay, and bronze in the 400m. After finishing third in the 400m hurdles at the 2015 Canadian Championships, Watson posted a 10th place finish in the event at the Pan Am Games in Toronto where she also ran the third leg of the 4x400m relay, helping Canada win the bronze medal. She went on to make her IAAF World Championship debut in Beijing, advancing to the semifinals of the 400m hurdles and reaching the final with the 4x400m relay.

She broke the 55-second mark in the 400m hurdles in May 2016, recording a personal best time of 54.82 seconds. Competing for the University of Florida of the NCAA, Watson had an outstanding collegiate career. She was named a second team All-American at the NCAA Outdoor Championships where she finished 12th in the 400m hurdles. She was runner-up in the 400m hurdles at the ACC Championships and was named ACC Freshman Track Athlete of the Year. After missing nearly all of 2014 with a foot injury, Watson returned to earn second team All-American honours after helping the Seminoles 4x400m relay finish ninth at the 2015 NCAA Indoor Championships.

In 2017, Watson won the gold in 400m hurdles at the NCAA National Championships, lowering her personal best time to 54.52 seconds. Later in the year, she advanced to her first individual final at the IAAF World Championships, placing sixth in the 400m hurdles in London.

In 2018, Watson was a finalist at the Commonwealth Games and won bronze in the 400m hurdles at the Diamond League meets in Shanghai and Oslo. At the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima, she won the gold medal in the 400m hurdles and added a silver in the 4x400m relay. She capped the 2019 season by breaking the 400m hurdles national record that had stood since 1996, running 54.32 in the semifinals at the World Athletics Championships in Doha before eventually finishing eighth in the final.

A Little More About Sage

Getting into the Sport: Began participating in track and field at age 6, but didn’t become competitive until she was 14… Inspired to compete for Canada when watching Canadian athletes compete at the Athens 2004 Olympics … Outside Interests: Graduated from the University of Arizona in 2017 with a degree in Business Marketing … Hobbies include; yoga, cooking and horseback riding… Odds and Ends: Always wears red lipstick when she competes… Collects coffee mugs from different countries…