About a month after graduating from high school, she won the Olympic silver medal in the long jump after earlier winning the U.S. Championships (then run by AAU). She held the national high school long jump record of 22-feet, 3 inches for 39 years (it is still No. 2 all-time nationally and more than 2 feet better than the next-best all-time long jump performance in North Carolina). 

She is a 9-time state outdoor track and field champion, winning 4 titles in the long jump (1973, '74, '75, '76, setting a state meet record of 21-7 in ‘76 that still stands today), 3 titles in the 220-yard dash (1974, '75, '76), and 2 titles in the 100-yard dash (1975, 1976). 

Kathy performed well on the international level afterwards winning 2 gold medals in the Pan Am Games (1979 and 1983) and would have represented the U.S. at the 1980 Olympics except for the U.S. boycott (she placed second in the long jump at the U.S. Trials, but won gold in the 1980 Olympic boycott games at the Liberty Bell Classic in Philadelphia, which hosted 29 countries). 

She is a member of the National High School Track & Field Hall of Fame, the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, the Tennessee State University Athletics Hall of fame, and the NCHSAA's “100 to Remember” female athletes.