{"id":454050,"date":"2026-02-02T18:11:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T18:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/454050\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T18:11:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T18:11:13","slug":"australian-monobob-star-bree-walker-welcomes-pressure-at-2026-winter-olympic-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/454050\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian monobob star Bree Walker welcomes pressure at 2026 Winter Olympic Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

The g-force felt hurtling down the bobsleigh track is the only pressure Bree Walker is feeling despite the Australian speed demon entering the Winter Olympics as one of the gold-medal favourites.<\/p>\n

Sliders in the newly-rebuilt Cortina d’Ampezzo circuit will hit speeds of 125 kilometres per hour, often reaching five gs \u2014 which is similar to a F1 driver or a fighter jet pilot.<\/p>\n

Ranked number two after three wins this season among five podium finishes from seven world cup starts<\/a>, Walker could not be better placed to claim a historic Olympic monobob medal for Australia at the 2026 Games.<\/p>\n

Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n

Rather than feel burdened by expectation, the 33-year-old told AAP she was embracing it.<\/p>\n

“I don’t feel pressure in a negative way at all \u2014 it’s what I wanted,” Walker, who finished fifth in the inaugural monobob event held at the Beijing Games in 2022, said.<\/p>\n

“I wanted to become one of the best in the world, I wanted to be winning medals for Australia and what comes with that is, obviously, the pressure to compete against the best.<\/p>\n

“And so I use that energy to put towards my racing because I get excited by that \u2014 I get excited by tight races, by competing with the best and striving for medals.<\/p>\n

“So, no, it’s not a negative thing at all \u2014 I use that as positive energy and I put it towards my races because, really I’m just a true racer at heart.”<\/p>\n

Aussie Olympic preparations continue after COVID-19 positive tests<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia’s Winter Olympics preparations will continue with minimal fuss in northern Italy despite two members of staff testing positive for COVID-19.<\/p>\n

A former track athlete who transitioned to bobsleigh 10 years ago, Walker says she is so competitive it is almost embarrassing.<\/p>\n

“I’m competitive in everything that I do, whether it’s a card game with the team at night \u2014 I’m really bad at snap \u2014 it’s the worst and I’m highly embarrassed by that,” said the Melbourne-raised, Cairns-based star.<\/p>\n

“But it’s what sets my soul on fire \u2026 I love bobsleigh because of the speed, because I’ve always loved just going fast.<\/p>\n

“I love races where I’m out in front and people are hunting me down, I love chasing people.<\/p>\n

“That’s what I’m really looking forward to at these Games, and it’s what I’ve loved throughout this whole season.”<\/p>\n

\"Bobsliegh<\/p>\n

Bree Walker (left) and Kiara Reddingius will team up in the two-woman bobsleigh event. (Getty Images: AOC\/Marco M. Mantovani)<\/p>\n

The Eugenio Monti Sliding Centre opened last March and has 16 curves over a distance of 1,749 metres.<\/p>\n

Walker finished third at the Olympic test event late last year<\/a> and said it suited her strengths, which included her explosive power starts.<\/p>\n

“I really love the track, it’s a bobsleigh pilot’s dream,” Walker said.<\/p>\n

“You have to be really fast at the start because it’s a very steep start ramp but the top section of the track is where you build a lot of your speed.<\/p>\n

“There’s lots of twists and turns, so as a pilot, you really have to get to work in order to be able to execute those corners and then as you’re going down the track, it gets flowier and faster, and that’s when you can really let the sled fly.”<\/p>\n

Walker will also team up with Kiara Reddingius, who grew up in Kalgoorlie, with the pair looking to improve on their 16th-placed finish in the two-woman bobsleigh in Beijing.<\/p>\n

The women’s monobob will begin on February 15 at 8pm, AEDT, with the medal round held on February 17 from 7am.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The g-force felt hurtling down the bobsleigh track is the only pressure Bree Walker is feeling despite the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[135388,5844,64,63,191366,191365,588,85,234053],"class_list":["post-454050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-2026-olympics","tag-abc-sport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bobsleigh","tag-monobob","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-winter-olympic-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}