Every Event. Every Medal in 4K.
Watch live & on demand.
Cortina d’Ampezzo: Australia’s Bree Walker faces a challenge, though far from insurmountable, to meet her ambition of grabbing a medal in the monobob after the first half of competition.
Walker, who entered the Olympics ranked second in the world in monobob – the one woman bobsleigh event – was placed seventh after her first two runs and will get two further opportunities to move up the rankings on Monday when the medals are decided.
Bree Walker during the women’s monobob.Credit: AP
Walker entered the Games as one of the main Australian hopes to be on the podium in what has been easily the nation’s most successful Winter Olympics for medals.
Walker said she had made some mistakes on her first attempt – when placed 11th – but that her second run was better, as she moved up the pecking order to within realistic striking distance of a medal.
German Laura Nolte, who pipped Walker in the World Cup, led the field overall, ahead of American pair Elena Meyers Taylor and incumbent gold medallist (Beijing 2022) Kaillie Armbruster-Humphries. The margin between Walker and third place is an aggregate of 0.77 seconds, and the gap is 1.12 seconds from the clubhouse leader.
Walker’s 11th placing in her first heat was well below her pre-Olympics standard, albeit the margins are relatively small. She had adjusted her race plan in the days before competition, based on the contours of the undulating Cortina course.
“The first heat I just made some mistakes,” Walker said, adding that she had made adjustments that helped improve her second run at a fast Cortina course.
“I hadn’t been during the training and yeah, it was really unexpected.
“The track was faster, and first day, first heat. And so I just went back and recouped and spoke with my coach and yeah, just went out there and blasted it in the second heat.”
Bree Walker in the monobob heats on Sunday.Credit: AP
Walker summed up her two runs and position as “definitely better on the second (heat).”
She had made major changes following the first run. “Definitely, big adjustments. The change was I felt in the first heat I was behind the whole time – behind, behind, behind. I really had to get on top in my driving and catch up. ”
Walker said in a four-heat race you just had to go back and recover. Her coach, the ex-Canadian bob sleigh great sled whisperer, Pierre Lueders, will be important to her tilt at making up the necessary time on Monday.
“Tomorrow’s a new day. You never know what anyone will produce. I mean, Kaysha (Love) just put down the 13th fastest run for that (second) heat and she was sitting, what, fourth?”
Germany’s Nolte, ranked No. 1 ahead of Walker in the 2025 season, set a track record with her opening run (59.44).
Ominously, the next three fastest after the first of four runs were the American trio, Elena Meyers Taylor, Love and 2022 Beijing gold medallist Kaillie Armbruster Humphries, each of whom were under 60 seconds.
Two of the trio had been ranked outside the top eight before the Olympics, though Love, fifth after her flawed second run, won the world championships last year.
“The Americans have a huge team,” said Walker, Australia’s only monobob competitor (she is part of a bob sleigh pair team here). “They always come up around Olympic Games. We knew they were going to come out firing. We just have to go out there and do our thing.”
The Winter Olympic Games is broadcast on the 9Network, 9Now and Stan Sport.
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
Most Viewed in Sport
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
