Breeana Walker
 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Australian |
| Born | 28 August 1992 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Height | 1.69 m (5 ft 7 in) |
| Weight | 74 kg (163 lb) |
| Sport | |
| Country | Australia |
| Sport | Bobsleigh |
| Event(s) | Monobob, Two Woman Bobsleigh |
| Turned pro | 2017 |
Breeana "Bree" Walker born on August 28, 1992, in Mount Evelyn, Melbourne, Australia, is a distinguished Australian Bobsleigh pilot who transitioned from a track and field career to make history in the winter sport for Australia.
Career
Beginnings in Track and Field and switching to Bobsleigh
Walker began her athletic journey specialising in sprint and mid distance events before tunnelling her focus towards 400-meter hurdles. In her senior years of athletics, she competed for Doncaster Athletic Club, under the watchful eye of her coach Tom Kelly. She clinched the Victoria 400m hurdle state championship in 2013, which earned her a full track and field scholarship to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. However, after a year, she returned to Australia, feeling that the U.S. training emphasis on muscle mass had adversely affected her performance. Back home, she trained under Peter Fortune, renowned for coaching Olympic champion Cathy Freeman.
Transition to Bobsleigh
In 2016, driven by her Olympic aspirations and inspired by athletes like Jana Pittman and Kim Brennan, Walker switched to bobsleigh. She joined the national team through a talent camp organized by Sliding Sports Australia and self-funded her pilot training at the Whistler Sliding Center in Canada.
Bobsleigh Career
In the 2017–18 season, Walker competed with brakewomen Mikayla Dunn and Ashleigh Werner in the North American and European Cups in order to meet the Olympic eligibility criteria. However, the team did not obtain the physical standards set by the national federation Sliding Sports Australia and were therefore not nominated to the Australian Olympic Committee for selection to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
The inclusion of monobob in the Olympic program for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics presented new opportunities. Walker seized this chance by winning the inaugural women's Monobob World Series races in Lillehammer in November 2018. She also continued to compete in the two-woman bobsleigh, achieving notable placements in European Cups and making her World Cup debut in January 2019.
The COVID-19 pandemic Walker chose to base herself in Germany with her former partner, German bobsledder Christian Hammers and trained out of Landesstützpunkt in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden with worked her former Physical/Push coach Tim Restle. Tim Restle. She moved to Frankfurt with her former partner, German bobsledder Christian Hammers and trained at the Landesstützpunkt Wiesbaden, where she had worked with her former Physical/Push coach Tim Restle; whom she worked with since the summer of 2018.
Her dedication bore fruit in the 2020–21 season, with victories in the Monobob World Series and top-ten finishes in the two-woman bobsleigh alongside brakewoman Sarah Blizzard. This season Walker finished second in the overall Monobob World Series ranking and eighth in the overall Two Woman Bobsleigh World Cup rankings.
At the Beijing Olympic Winter Games 2022, Walker achieved a historic fifth-place finish in the women's monobob, marking Australia's best Olympic bobsleigh result. She also competed in the two-woman event with Kiara Reddingius, finishing 16th.[1]
After the 2022 Winter Olympics, Walker enhanced her coaching team by appointing Canadian Olympic and World Champion Pierre Lueders as head coach, Florian Linder as push coach, Will Morgan as physical coach and relocating her training base to Calgary, Canada.
In the 2022/23 season Walker went on to win her first Monobob World Cup medals; as Monobob became part of the World Cup Circuit. She also placed fourth at the 2023 Monobob World Championships in St Mortiz, Switzerland, achieving Australia's highest World Championship placing.
In the 2023/24 season Walker teamed up again with her Olympic Brakemen, Kiara Reddingius; after Reddingius took a year away from the sport . Walker went on to achieve multiple monobob medals that season as well as multiple top 5 winning performances with Reddingius. At the 2024 World Championships in Winterberg, Germany Walker placed fourth in the Monobob event and fifth in the Two Women event with Reddingius; historical performances for Australia in both events. She rounded out the season with her first Monobob World Cup win in Lake Placid, New York USA. This resulted in Walker finishing second in the overall Monobob World Cup Ranking, as well as finishing sixth in the overall Two Women Bobsleigh ranking.
Personal life
Walker attended St Marys Primary School, Victoria and Mount Lilydale Mercy College, Victoria, where she was appointed Sports Prefect in her final year of secondary education.
After she graduated secondary school she returned to complete a gap year as the AFL traineeship at Mount Lilydale.
Walker began her tertiary education at RMIT University in 2012 studying a Bachelor of Health and Physical Education. However due to her athletic training and competition commitments she transferred to [Deakin University]].[2][3] in 2016 and graduated with a Bachelor of Health and Physical Education in 2019.
Walker currently splits her time between of Cairns, Australia and Calgary, Canada
References
- ^ "Poor final run ruins Aussie bobsleigh dream". wwos.nine.com.au. 19 February 2022. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
- ^ "The 2022 Olympic Winter Games have come to an end: congratulations to our Deakin elite-athlete students!". Deakin Life. Deakin University. 21 February 2022. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
- ^ "Elite Athlete Program Profiles". Deakin University. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
