Kate McDonald

Victorian artistic gymnast Kate McDonald wasn’t supposed to win gold on the balance beam at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022. She was aiming to claim top spot in her speciality, the uneven bars. 

But it didn’t work out that way. Kate could only manage seventh in the uneven bars, but took beam gold and was part of the women’s team that won silver.  

“It definitely wasn’t expected,” she says. “I’m a solid beam worker, but I was on the team for my bars. I got to the bar final, but I guess I had just put too much pressure on myself and stuffed up my routine. 

“To go on and win gold on the balance beam was a massive achievement for me.” 

Kate started in the sport when she was five because she loved physical activity. 

She gradually rose up through the junior ranks, before breaking through for a bronze medal in the uneven bars at the Australian championships in 2018.  

Another Australian uneven bars bronze at the 2019 nationals was followed by gold in that event at the Australian Classic and then she gained a spot at the World Championships in Stuttgart, where she competed in uneven bars and balance beam. 

Kate claimed the bronze medal in the balance beam at the 2021 Australian titles, but the 2022 championships yielded even better results – silver in both the uneven bars and balance beam, fourth in the all around title and fifth on the floor.   

Kate’s self-described disappointing uneven bars performance at Birmingham was somewhat remedied by a personal best of 17th at the 2022 World Championships in Liverpool, a result achieved despite suffering a fractured fibula. 

“I was really happy with that result,” he says. “I was able to turn around my uneven bars performance and execute the routine I had planned at the Commonwealth Games.”                                               

In October 2023, Kate was part of the Australian women’s artistic team that booked its ticket to the Paris Olympics, securing a team place at the Artistic World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium. 

Needing to finish in the top 12, the team – Kate, Georgia Godwin, Emily Whitehead, Breanna Scott and Ruby Pass – came ninth, with an incredible score of 157.896. It was the first time Australia had qualified a team spot since London 2012. 

The team won silver at the EnDW DTB Pokal Cup in Stuttgart, Germany, in March 2024. Each member of the team recorded a top-12 finish in at least one apparatus.