Menu
From Humble Beginnings
Breeana (Bree) Walker, born in Melbourne Australia August 28th 1992, is the eldest daughter of Mick and Judie Walker. She grew up in the small eastern suburb of Mt Evelyn, on the edge of the Yarra Valley. Bree attended primary school at St Mary’s Catholic School and high school at Mount Lilydale Mercy College. She was a lover of sport from a young age, beginning with horse riding which was where her dream of going to the Olympics first began.
Track and Field Career
Once beginning high school, she dabbled in lots of sports but Track and Field was the sport that captured Bree’s heart. This is where the new dream of competing for Australia at the Olympic in Track and Field was ignited; inspired also by Cathy Freeman, who is still her favourite athlete to this day. Progressing from Little Athletics to the senior ranks, Bree narrowed her focus to the 400ms and 100m hurdles. To get stronger in the 400m event, Bree’s Track & Field coach Tom Kelly convinced her to do the 400m hurdles.
The unexpected leap to 400m Hurdles
Unexpectedly, Bree fell in-love with the 400m hurdles and the year she began the event she also won the 400mh Victoria State Championships. That same year she was scouted to the Division 1 College on a full scholarship in America; the University of Arkansas in Little Rock. She spent 2014 in the States competing in the NCAA before returning home in 2015 to finish her University degree in Physical Education teaching at Deakin University (which she graduated from in 2022).
“I just googled Bobsleigh”
Over that year Bree’s love for Track and Field began to fade but she knew she had a lot more to give and she was still determined to represent Australia internationally and compete at the Olympics. Bobsleigh was always something that Bree thought she would do after her athletic career but she thought while she was still young and fit why not transfer over and see if she can achieve her dream in the sport of Bobsleigh.
In 2016, Bree googled whether Australia had a Bobsleigh team. At the time, the team was being revamped for the 2018 Olympics. Bree signed up for the Talent Identification Camp, where she achieved the standards and was sent overseas to learn how to drive a bobsled.
Olympic Qualification Disappointment?
After two years of hard training and competing, Bree and her team qualified for the 2018 Winter Olympics. However, the National Federation at the time did not nominate them to compete at the Games. Despite being so close to living out her Olympic dream, this did not deter Bree. She set out to make sure she would be at the next Olympics in 2022 as a real competitor!
BobsledBree Today?
Over the past few years, Bree has become one of the fastest bobsleigh pilot pushers in the world, and with her driving talent, has achieved multiple podium finishes on the World Cup stage.
Monobob was a new Olympic event at the 2022 Winter Olympics. Across the time that this event has been part of the circuit Bree has won 7 gold medals. Over the last Olympic 2021/22 season, Bree finished with multiple World Cup medals, achieved a World Ranking of 5th and impressively finished 5th at the 2022 Winter Olympics; the highest finish an Australian Bobsledder has ever finished at the Games.
Bree is passionate in sharing her journey and love for the sport and strongly encourages females to be fearless with their dreams.
From being told that it would be next to impossible for Australia to win medals on the world stage to winning multiple medals all over the globe for her country, Bree has sure stamped her name in the Bobsleigh history books; proving that it doesn’t matter where you come from, if you are determined enough winning is possible!
From the introduction of the single person Bobsleigh event, or better known as the Monobob event Bree has been one of the leading lights; winning 8 Gold medals during the last Olympic cycle. To accompany these winnings, she achieved an astounding achievement for Australia when she placed 5th at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and 4th at the 2022 St Mortiz World Championships in the Monobob event.
| Gold | Silver | Bronze |
World Monobob Series | 8 | 4 | 2 |
Monobob World Cup |
| 1 | 1 |
Her success in the Two-Woman has been a lot slower but with the increase in skill, coaching and funding across the past years Bree achieved Australia’s all-time best performance in the event in the 2022/23 Winterberg World Cup when her and her teammate at the time, Sarah Blizzard placed 5th. She hopes to build on this performance in the coming years, looking to achieve similar results in the Two-woman as she already does in the Monobob event.
