- See Less -Katie Compton (born 3 December 1978) is an American bicycle racer. She specializes in cyclo-cross racing and piloting a tandem with a blind partner in Paralympic events.
She has the won the USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships Elite Women's title every year from 2004 to 2008. Since she takes part in Paralympic events she can not enter any bicycle races which award UCI points. Since she was unable to take part in major races before the National Championship, her win was a surprise to other racers, fans and journalists.
In 2007 she became the first American woman to podium in the Cyclo-cross World Championships (held in the Cyclo-cross capital of the world that year—Belgium) where she won silver between a French duo composed of Maryline Salvetat (who took the gold) and Laurence Leboucher (who won the bronze). In the 2007–2008 season she began racing professionally in UCI races as she no longer had her Paralympic obligations. In the beginning of the season she routinely has won the elite women's races in the US and on November 11, in only her third ever, she won her first World Cup Race in Pijnacker, Netherlands. Compton won by a margin of 54 seconds ahead of race favorite Daphny Van Den Brand who had won the previous World Cup race in Kalmthout.
In Paralympic events she rides a tandem with a blind partner Karissa Whitsell. Katie, the sighted team member, pilots and pedals the tandem in the captain position while Karissa rides in the rear, stoker, position on their tandem. They were dominant in the 2004 Games, winning medals in every event they entered and setting a world record in the 3 km pursuit event.
