Catriona Bisset

In 2019, Melbourne Architecture student Catriona Bisset seemingly emerged out of nowhere, breaking the longest-standing Australian women’s athletics record – the 800m - which had stood for 43 years. She also collected the national, Oceania and World University Games titles.

What many fans, spectators and media didn't realise, was that her success was years in the making and a result of Catriona taking her mental health into her own hands - overcoming an eating disorder, anxiety and depression, which years earlier caused her to hang up her spikes completely.

Catriona started running from the age of six, participating in Little Athletics Under 7's for the West Creek Redbacks in Canberra. She showed promise early on, remembering that she 'dominated the Under 8's multi-event,' which involved running in the 100m, 200m and shot put. She also participated in squad swimming and netball, but it was her father who encouraged her to focus on running, with the pair heading out together on Saturday mornings for a run.

As Catriona reached her teens she began developing an eating disorder and suffered from anxiety and depression, so the 'shy and introverted kid,' stopped competing believing that success was too far out of her reach and she didn't believe she had the right mindset to be an athlete, something she regrets thinking now.

She shifted her focus to her studies and when she was 22, began running casually although she had no interest in elite competition.

Catriona started running the 800m distance and her love of the track started flooding back, with a major turning point occurring at the NSW Athletics Championships in 2016 where she decided that running was what she wanted to pursue wholeheartedly.

She decided to move to Melbourne and commenced training under legendary coach, Peter Fortune and from then on, her performances went from strength to strength.

As she continued her studies, now a Master of Architecture and Diploma in Languages (Chinese) at Melbourne University, progression was steady.

In the first summer under coach Fortune, Catriona progressed her 800m time from 2:12 to 2:08, then to a very promising 2:03 in March 2018. 

In late February 2019, she ran five consecutive personal bests, going from 2:03 to 1:59.78.

The national 800m record, set by Judy Pollock in 1976, had been threatened by many over the last four decades, including Tamsyn Lewis-Manou, but in London in July 2019, 11 days after her win at the World University Games in Italy, Catriona lowered the record clocking 1:58.78 qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics.

In the lead up to the Games, Catriona again broke the National record clocking 1:58.09 in Poland and ran four consecutive races under 2:00 - leaving her primed for her Olympic debut. In Tokyo she placed fifth in a close heat where the first five finished within a second. She clocked 2:01.65. 

In 2022 and 2023 Catriona continued her progression, lowering the National 800m records both indoors (1:59.46) and outdoors (1:57.78) and regularly ran sub-two minutes. She made the semi-finals at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships and was 5th at the World indoors and Commonwealth Games in 2022.

In March 2024 Catriona competed on her ninth Australian team at the World Indoor championships, she progressed to the 800m semi-final. In April she placed fourth at the Nationals in the deepest ever Australian 800m race when four athletes dipped under two minutes. She followed this with a strong European campaign clocking a fastest time of 1:58.44 and claiming a win in Madrid.