56kg Asian male and the most I ever hit was 800watts and I was topping out at 13w/kg… I see the heavier guys topping out at 12w/kg too, but they are obtaining this gigawatt badge and here I am like what in the heck? what about me? LOL
Given all of the physical differences between people, absolute achievements will always put some people at a natural disadvantage. I think Zwift did recognize this and hid those badges from view. I regard these as intended for private use, so you know where you stand. These are not intended to give you bragging rights in general.
Personally, I do not care that much about these badges. To me it is more important how I feel after a good training session or ride. As a 84 kg European male I do have a natural advantage in putting out raw watts compared to people with another genetic background. I just want to focus on improving myself, comparing myself to comparable individuals.
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An interesting discussion.
Is the existence of a Badge for hitting 1000 Watts discriminatory? Yes, I guess it is. But that doesn’t mean they should do away with it.
There are always going to be athletic achievements that favour certain body types. I’m never going to win a Sumo Championship. I’m way too short to be an NBA centre. I’m six inches too short, and a hundred pounds too light to be an NFL defensive lineman. And I’m sixty pounds too heavy, and six inches too tall, to ride the winning horse at the Kentucky Derby. No amount of training or hard work on my part is going to change that.
Even in cycling, there are certain achievements (like the Hour Record) that require a genetic physical advantage (an abnormally high VO2 max) that make it impossible for most people - no matter how dedicated, hardworking, or other deserving - to have a chance at.
Do smaller, lighter cyclists have advantages on other parts of the cycling experience? Absolutely. Most of the best climbers are smaller and lighter. They leave the sprinters and puncheurs - the people who can make the big watts - grinding and sweating in the grupetto, while their lighter, wirier competitors dance to the top of the climb.
A 1000 watts, a Kilowatt, is a nice round number. Achieving it on a bike (and having the means to record it) is an achievement only a relative few will enjoy. Don’t diminish it by coming up with some arbitrary “weight factor” so that everyone has an equal chance. That simply isn’t the way cycling, or life, works.
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I completely agree with your post and have wondered that myself if the wattage targets are fair for women (who generally weigh less than men) or lighter riders in general. I have enjoyed badge hunting over the last 2 indoor seasons and yes some of the badges are easier to get than others and some are really hard. My issue with the wattage badges is that MANY of them are completely unattainable if you are of a lower weight. I weigh 60kg and have achieved the 500 and 600 watt badges. If a worked at it really hard maybe I could get to 700. But there is also the 500 for 10 sec, 800, 900, 1000, 1100, 1200 watt badges. There are always going to be exceptions to every rule but these targets are set with men in mind and are far less achievable if you are female. I find it interesting that the people who argue against changing these badges are men and aren’t at the same disadvantage for achieving them. To argue that lighter riders have an advantage of climbing Alpe de Zwift in under an hour may be true but that is still really hard to do even if you are lighter AND it’s only 1 badge. There are NINE wattage based badges!! That’s a lot that are left on the table. Also the argument that longer distance badges are discriminatory against people who don’t have much time is ridiculous. If a rider is interested and motivated to tackle longer rides, then it is achievable whether you weigh 50kg or 100kg and whether you are male or female and whether you work or don’t work, have kids or don’t have kids etc. I feel strongly that Zwift should take another look at these badges and re-jig them. Maybe the targets need to be different for men and women or maybe they need to be weight based. Too bad so many people like to feel good about themselves by lying about their weight to cheat the system.
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I get it not every one can get the 1200watt badge, but that is one badge one attempt.
But Lighter riders has an advantage on every climb over heavy riders every day in every event. I will be happy to swap places and climb like a mountain goat and you can get the 800w to 1200w badge once and nobody can see it.
I would like to see a 1300w to 2000w badge something that I cant reach and can train for and maybe get lucky.
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Being a heavier rider doesn’t prevent you from riding uphill and you are still able to achieve badges for completing a hilly route even if it takes you longer than a lighter rider.
My point for the wattage badges is that for a 60 kg rider versus an 80kg rider you would need to hit
11.7 w/kg vs 8.75w/kg for the 700watt badge,
13.3 w/kg vs 10w/kg for 800 watt badge,
15w/kg vs 11.25w/kg for 900 watt badge,
16.7w/kg vs 12.5 w/kg for 1000 watt badge,
18.3 w/kg vs 13.75w/kg for 1100 watt badge and
20 w/kg vs 15w/kg for 1200 watt badge.
So for equal effort, an average 60 kg rider can achieve the 900 watt badge where the 80kg rider can achieve the 1200 watt badge.
But that is part of cycling (or any sport for that matter). Different rider types excel at different specialties. You don’t see Chris Froome, Richie Porte, etc trying to duke it out with Sagan, Greipel, and other sprinters. They are not made to put out that kind of power. Much like you don’t see sprinters contending on climbs.
Plus, as much as many people want 100% fairness/equity (or whatever the term du jour is) there are fundamental physical differences between biological males and females. Men, on average, have a higher strength capacity than women (this isn’t always the case cause there are probably plenty of women that are stronger than me personally, but on a large scale this holds true).
Additionally, these badges are hidden badges that if you don’t go searching to learn about them you would never know they existed.
Maybe get rid of all the badges, religious people cant cycle one day of the week so they can’t get the work from home badge.
People that has two jobs don’t have time to do the long routes so lets take that away.
A lighter rider will always dominate the climbing races even if they never see 800w.
Yes it sound silly but sometimes not everyone can get everything.
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Now this issue has been raised it does seem discriminatory to me. The wattage badges “only” go up to 1200 watts which is probably within reach of most men (this coming from a man that is stuck on 800) with training. I don’t see any reason not to either change it dependent on gender or to w/kg.
The other idea is to keep having the badges up to 2500 watts (which apparently Chris Hoy could do) and then 99.9% of people wouldn’t be able to get all of them.
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I’m not suggesting 100% fairness…you can never make everyone happy. I agree with you that there are biological differences between men and women and from an achievement badge point of view it would be nice if the badges reflected that. Maybe the targets for power should be different for men and women 
…but this is a male dominated sport and a male dominated platform so I’m not surprised none of you fellas have a problem with it - it doesn’t impact you.
Some of the power badges are hidden…but when you look at the fraction of badges you have achieved out of the total number of badges, the denominator represents all the badges including the ones you can’t see.
Gerrie,
I think you’ve missed the point completely and your arguments are rather silly
This whole topic is silly.
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Will need to get rid of the “Climb the Alp in less than an hour” badge then too. I’m heavy and can’t make it up that fast, so Zwift is fat shaming me.
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Just make badges with 100 watts increments, that will please all of us 
I rarely agree with @Gerrie_Delport_ODZ, but the Work From Home badge seems antisemitic, just as the wattage badges seem both sexist and ableist.
In the interest of full disclosure: my top power output is less than 600 watts, but I did get all of the wattage badges due to a technical glitch where my power was recorded as ~20,000 watts for a fraction of a second.
This day will go down in history. 
That is why it will be so warm next week.
Yes that happened to my wife she was not happy.
Just keep the old badges with specific Watt targets and make NEW badges with W/KH targets.
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There is an issue here, but I really do think the “discrimination” tag gets thrown around way too easily. As a heavier guy, I have an advantage but, on the other hand, I am not a wealthy heavier guy and my trainer 800W is the maximum I can produce on it (it is also pretty much the maximum my legs can produce as well so there is that).
Is it discrimination that I can’t afford a trainer that would allow me a chance at those badges? No, I really don’t think that it is.
There is a valid issue for discussion here as to whether there should be separate badges for men and women to reflect biological differences, but I really don’t see the benefit of changing the badges to wpg for the aforementioned reason … I can simply log into Zwift and reduce my weight (in effect I can pretty much reduce my weight by 50%).
Personally, I would rather there be badges that I recognise I have no chance to get (even if there might be an element of unfairness in that), than render the badges totally worthless by allowing such an easy method of gaming the system.
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I agree with that and have mentioned it before. It will be awesome to have targets up to 2000w to have something out of range but it will be fun to see how high you can go. I am sure there is a few A+ riders that can get 2000w.
What I don’t understand is why do you want to remove badges or call them discrimination if you can’t reach it.
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HI Liz,
I’m a man and I will never get quite a few of those badges too
you’re not alone in not being able to hit 1100 or 1200 watts, that’s a power level that the majority of people will never be able to achieve.
I’ll never get some of the wattage ones, and I"ll never get the alpe under an hour… and that’s OK
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