Bree's Story
Fast Facts
Sport: Bobsleigh
Events: Women’s monobob and two-woman bobsleigh
Olympic History: Beijing 2022
Highlights: 7x Monobob gold medallist, 5th in monobob at Beijing 2022 - Australia's best ever Olympic Bobsleigh finish
Coaches: Tim Restler and Matthias Böhmer
Year Born: 1992
State Born: Victoria
About Bree
Bree Walker arrived at Beijing 2022 having taken the monobob circuit by storm, claiming eight world series podiums over the previous two seasons.
With a gold, three silvers and a bronze out of just seven monobob events she contested in the 2021-22 season up to Beijing, she entered the Games ranked fifth in the world.
Bree used a pulsating final day of monobob action at Beijing 2022 to climb the rankings into a fifth-place finish. Her combined time of 4:21.26 was just 0.43 of a second behind Canada's Christine de Bruin who won the bronze medal.
In the two-woman bobsleigh Bree and Kiara Reddingius combined to finish 16th, less than half a second outside the top 10. They were only marginally short of Australia's best ever result in the discipline (14th) at the Olympics, set by Astrid Loch-Wilkinson and Kylie Reed at Torino 2006.
Bree and Kiara were a relatively inexperienced combination, as their Beijing 2022 performance was only their fourth race together. From one of those previous races they earned Australia’s best ever result in the two-woman bobsleigh, finishing seventh. It was one of two top-10 finishes in the event they had during the 2021-22 season.
Bree grew up always harbouring Olympic ambitions but they were for another sport entirely. She took to the dry, flat land rather than a downhill ice track as she was inspired by Cathy Freeman’s Sydney 2000 gold in the 400m.
She won several state and national medals in the 400m hurdles, which helped earn her an athletics scholarship to the University of Arkansas. But injuries started to take their toll.
"When I returned from those injuries, I had to ask myself the big question — 'Was I going to represent Australia as a 400m hurdler?'" Bree said.
"And the honest answer was, no."
So she started investigating winter sports and in 2016 made her Bobsleigh debut in Whistler, Canada.
"I Googled if we had an Australian Bobsleigh Team and we did.
"So I signed up for the talent identification camp and the rest is history.”
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