From taking up road cycling on a whim to competing in the Olympics in just three years: Kim Cadzow is one to watch. 

The 22-year-old, who lives in Luggate when she’s not working for her trade team in Genoa, Spain, says being selected for the Paris Olympics Games 2024 was “a bit of a surprise”.

It happened “a lot faster than I thought,” she said.

In August Kim will travel to Paris to compete in the 158km road ride event, which starts and finishes at the Trocadéro, overlooking the Eiffel Tower. 

It’s a long way from her first rides in Luggate.

“I hadn’t really touched a bike until I moved down to Wānaka,” Kim told the Wānaka App.

“I started after I finished school, during Covid-19; I got injured doing some triathlons so I decided to try some road racing.”

She says her former coach, Wānaka-based Patrick Harvey, “showed me the way” into the professional world of road cycling.

Kim has already won the NZ national time trial in 2024, placed sixth in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege monument and achieved a top-10 GC in the Vuelta Espana.

Kim is now a full-time professional cyclist employed with EF Education-Cannondale and she spends most of the year training and competing around Europe.

Earlier this year Kim dominated the New Zealand national championship time trial in 2024 and also placed an outstanding sixth in the famed Liege-Bastogne-Liege monument and top-10 on GC in the Vuelta Espana.

She has two more significant races before she competes at the Olympics; alongside “a lot” of training, Kim will race in the Tour of Switzerland and the Giro d'Italia.

The job “takes a lot of work: a lot of training and hours on the bike and everything that goes with it”, she said.

When she’s not competing or training, Kim spends time at home in Luggate with her husband and her wider family.

“It’s important to have a good support structure around you and I have some really good people supporting me,” she said.

“Trying to remember to enjoy it is important too - it’s easy to get caught in chasing results but sometimes when you are pushing it too hard every race feels like a chore.”

Kim is one of 16 Kiwi cyclists who make up the New Zealand team for the Paris Olympic Games 2024, and one of two with roots in Wānaka; former Wānaka resident Ellesse Andrews is competing in the keirin. 

Cycling New Zealand high performance director Ryan Hollows said the athletes make up one of the strongest track and road teams the country has sent to the Olympic Games.

Kim will compete in the women’s road cycling event on August 4.

PHOTOS: Supplied