Bree Walker, one of the world’s leading monobob athletes

“In 2016, I was a 400-metre hurdler,” Walker says. “I was watching the Rio Olympics and I was sitting there like, how am I going to do this? How am I going to represent Australia on the world stage?”

“I had to ask myself the hard question whether I was going to be able to do that in track and field. And the hard answer was no.” Suffering from injuries, coaching uncertainty and a fading love for the sport, she still had the desire to achieve that dream.

Inspired by athletes like Jana Pittman who had made the leap before her – and the iconic film Cool Runnings – Walker took a chance. “I simply Googled whether we had an Australian bobsleigh team and at the time we didn’t,” she says. When the program reopened ahead of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, she signed up. A month later, after raising $10,000, she was on her way to Canada to learn how to drive a bobsleigh.

She discovered her perfect fit. “Bobsleigh is a power and speed sport and pretty much that’s what I am,” she says. “Any chance that I can get to go fast? I just love.”

The early years were tough. Completely self-funded, Walker managed logistics, equipment, accommodation and scheduling by herself. “I just kept working harder and harder and then you would get noticed by different people along the way,” she says.

Her determination did not go unnoticed. Hannah Kennedy, Walker’s sport performance manager at the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia (OWIA), says, “She very much strikes me as extremely fierce and determined. She knows what she wants and what she needs and is very articulate in being able to help people understand what that is.”

After securing a personal driving coach in 2020, Walker began making her mark internationally. She earned her spot on her first Olympic team in Beijing 2022, finishing fifth in monobob. “That made me realise what I was capable of doing on the world stage,” she says.

After Beijing, she set her sights even higher — on recruiting Canadian bobsleigh legend and five-time Olympic Champion Pierre Lueders as her head coach. “Everyone told me there was no chance that he was going to come and coach a little team from Australia. But I said no, I know that this man is going to be able to help me get to where I want to be.” A few months later, he agreed.

Since then, Walker has finished second overall on the World Cup circuit for two consecutive seasons and continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible for an Australian winter athlete.

Support from the Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS) and the OWIA has been pivotal. “I’m very grateful for institutes like QAS and OWIA who saw my potential after the Beijing Olympics and said, you know what, we want to create a program for you,” she says.

“They’ve been able to provide me with financial backing … but then also … having them on board has really allowed me to step back from those other roles I’ve had to play and just allows me to be an athlete.”

Kennedy explains the challenges of supporting athletes in winter sports: “One of the unique challenges with supporting winter sports athletes is that there’s very little face-to-face contact time, so it’s really important to be able to establish really great rapport and trust and that comes from really understanding what they need and being flexible in our approach to adapt that support based around their unique set of circumstances.

When it all clicks, the feeling is unmistakable. “When I hit or run and I know that it was really fast, there’s no better feeling. It just fills my body with so much adrenaline and excitement and I don’t even often need to look at the time to know when I’ve done a good run because it just feels magical… there’s no better feeling.