Bobsled Bree can’t catch Olympic medallists

Melissa Woods | February 17, 2026

Bree Walker has been unable to translate her sizzling World Cup form to the Olympic stage with Australia’s red-hot medal favourite missing the monobob podium at the Milan-Cortina Games.

Walker, who is ranked No.2 with three World Cup victories this season, was unable to match the pace of the race leaders over four runs down the Cortina Olympic track and finished eighth.

It’s a slip from Beijing four years ago in the one-woman bobsleigh when she finished fifth, with a sloppy first run there that put her back in 10th also costing her a medal.

The 33-year-old gave herself a mountain to climb in Italy after some uncharacteristic errors in run one left her 11th in the standings.

Walker showed her class to move up to seventh after her second attempt and in her third on Monday night (Tuesday AEDT) had her best run of the competition, going under a minute for the first time by clocking 59.60 seconds.

She still had some trouble with the top turns, catching the inside wall coming out of turn two and then tapped the wall a few times after exiting at curve nine which cost her crucial time.

But defending Olympic champion Kallie Humphries Armbruster and fellow American and Beijing silver medallist Elena Meyers Taylor both posted a time of 59.08 to eclipse the track record set minutes before by race leader Laura Nolte.

With medals decided on a cumulative time over the four runs, Walker dropped back a spot to eighth and trailed Germany’s World No.1 Nolte by a whopping 1.53 seconds heading into the top-20 final run.

The Victorian-born former one-lap hurdler again laid down a strong fourth run with a time of 59.69 but couldn’t make up much ground and finished 1.56 seconds off the pace.

Meyers Taylor, 41, improved on her Beijing silver, jumping above Nolte into the top spot on her final run to win by 0.04 seconds.

Competing in her sixth Olympics 40-year-old Armbruster Humphries added bronze to her five-medal collection.

Walker will get another chance to compete, joining Kiara Reddingius in the two-woman event although the pair only have top-10 ambitions.