Walter emerged from the talent factory of the traditional Viennese ice skating club together with Hanna Eigel and Ingrid Wendl . This funded the rival runners' lessons, the ice ages and provided two pairs of custom-made ice skates per year. Internationally, Walter first appeared in the European championships in 1954 in Bolzano, Italy , when she finished ninth in the victory of German champion Gundi Busch . At the European Championships a year later , when her teammate Hanna Eigel won, she finished fifth as the second best Austrian, but could not finish the World Championships.
In the following years, Walter managed to continuously improve. Nevertheless, she was always in the shadow of her teammates Eigel and Wendl. They always won medals and titles at major sporting events, for example at the European Championship in 1957 , when Walter won her first medal in third place, and at the European Championship and World Championship in 1958, when she finished second and third respectively. It was only after Eigel and Wendl switched to the professional camp in 1959 that Walter achieved great success by winning the European Championship in Davos . Here she relegated the future series winner Sjoukje Dijkstra and her Dutch compatriot Joan Haanappel to the places. In the same year, the Austrian achieved her best placement at the World Championships in Colorado Springs and won silver behind local hero and Olympic champion Carol Heiss .
After finishing her amateur career, Walter devoted herself to professional sport from 1960 and achieved an annual income of 40,000 to 50,000 marks through appearances in ice revues.
.jpg)
Austria
