Bree Walker

Fast Facts

Sport: Bobsleigh
Events: Women’s monobob and 2-woman bobsleigh
Olympic History: Beijing 2022, Milano 2026
Highlights: First monobob World Cup gold medal in Lake Placid 2024
Coaches: Pierre Lueders and Olaf Hampel
Year Born: 1992

About Bree

Bobsleigh star Bree Walker slides into her second Olympic Winter Games in golden form. Going into Milano Cortina the 33-year-old from Cairns has won a remarkable three World Cups this season and finished a close second on the World Cup standings. Bree is ready to challenge for the monobob podium after her fifth place four years ago in Beijing. She will also compete in the 2-woman with brakewoman Desi Johnson.  

Bree grew up in Melbourne’s outer east and had early Olympic dreams shaped on the track, not the ice. Inspired by Cathy Freeman’s Sydney 2000 triumph, she chose athletics and went on to win state and national medals in the 400 metre hurdles, before earning an athletics scholarship to the University of Arkansas. After injuries stalled her progress, she sought a new path. After watching Olympic 400m Hurdler Jana Pittman compete in bobsleigh at Sochi 2014, she made the giant change to bobsleigh in 2016, making her competition debut in Whistler, Canada. 

Bree gravitated to the pilot’s seat in the then‑emerging women’s monobob discipline and quickly rose through the international ranks. In the two seasons before Beijing 2022 she collected eight podiums on the monobob circuit and arrived ranked fifth in the world. Her Olympic debut confirmed her class: after sitting 10th overnight, she charged to fifth place in the inaugural Olympic monobob, only 0.43 seconds from the bronze medal. She then teamed with Kiara Reddingius to finish 16th in the two‑woman event, just outside Australia’s best Olympic result in the event, despite the pair having raced together only three times before the Games.

The momentum continued at the 2023 World Championships in St Moritz, Switzerland, placing fourth. This was Australia’s best performance at a sliding World Championships, missing the podium by two‑tenths of a second. She equalled that result in February 2024 at the Winterberg World Championships, heartbreakingly missing bronze by 0.07 seconds after four runs. A week later at the same competition, Bree and Kiara delivered Australia’s best two‑woman result at a World Championships, finishing fifth. 

Her breakthrough World Cup victory came in March 2024 at Lake Placid, where she became the first Australian to win a bobsleigh World Cup gold. She set a track record of 59.22 seconds in the first run and finished the 2023/24 season second overall in the monobob standings, the best end‑of‑season ranking of her career. Bree lists that maiden World Cup gold as a career highlight. 

The pre‑Olympic season (2024/25) confirmed her standing among the world’s best. On 8 February 2025, she shared victory in Lillehammer with the United States’ Kaysha Love, the first tie for the win in World Cup monobob history. The Australian returned a week later to win the season finale outright on the same track. Those results helped her secure second place on the overall monobob World Cup standings, the same finish as the previous season.  

At the 2025 World Championships in Lake Placid she placed ninth in monobob, and 13th in the 2‑woman event with Kiara, while managing illness at the end of the season. 

Bree started the 2025/26 World Cup season in November with a third and fourth place. She then won back-to-back golds, at the Lillehammer track in Norway on 13 December and a week later in Latvia at Sigulda. The Olympic year began at the Winterberg World Cup with ninth, at what she described as a ‘brutal whirlwind weekend’.  

Bree then bounced back in emphatic style to claim her third gold for the season at the famous Celerina track in St. Moritz, Switzerland. In the final World Cup before Milano Cortina she produced another outstanding series of monobob runs, to finish second behind American Olympic Champion Kaillie Armbruster Humphries. Bree’s result wasn’t quite enough to top the World Cup points. For the third year in a row she is ranked second in the world and goes to her second Olympics confident she has taken her driving to a new level in the pre-Olympic season.  

Across the pre-Olympic World Cup season, Bree and Kiara delivered strong results. They were 18th on the Cortina d'Ampezzo Olympic track and 18th again a week later in Innsbruck. Their best finish came at Lillehammer when 12th, before 19th in Winterberg and 16th at St. Moritz. They chose not to compete in the final World Cup of the season in Altenberg. 

Bree’s progress owes much to a tight‑knit support team. She is coached by Pierre Lueders and Olaf Hampel, two of the sport’s most accomplished mentors. She also often bases herself in Calgary for training stints to hone driving skills and starts in world‑class facilities. Away from competition she keeps things simple - coffee with friends, reading and baking. 

Heading to Milano Cortina she is focused and ready for what lies ahead.  

“Last Olympic cycle, I was just prepared to make the Olympics,” Bree reflected. “This cycle, I’m prepared to compete at the Olympics.”