Sarah Walker (cyclist)

Sarah Walker

Sarah Walker, 2018
To person
Date of birth	July 10, 1988
nation	New Zealand
discipline	BMX
Most important successes
Olympic Games 2012 : - BMX UCI BMX World Championships 2005 : - Cruiser Juniors 2006 : - Cruiser Juniors 2006 : - BMX Juniors 2007 : - Cruiser 2007 : - BMX 2008 : - BMX 2008 : - Cruiser 2009 : - BMX 2009 : - Cruiser 2010 : - BMX 2011 : - BMX Supercross World Cup 2007 : - BMX 2008 : - BMX 2010 : - BMX 2011 : - BMX
Last updated: November 5, 2017

Sarah Walker (born July 10, 1988 in Whakatāne , New Zealand ) is a New Zealand BMX cyclist. She is multiple world champion in her discipline and won the silver medal at the 2012 Olympic Games .

General

Sarah Walker was born on July 10, 1988 in Whakatāne, a city on the north coast of the North Island of New Zealand. Their ancestors were Māori , the indigenous people of New Zealand. Sarah Walker attended the South School in the neighboring town of Kawerau , then later the High School of Whakatāne.

Athletic career

Sarah Walker came to BMX through her younger brother. In 1999 she became the New Zealand champion for the first time. Another eleven state championships should follow by 2011. The first international success came in 2005. At the BMX World Championship in Paris, she won the silver medal in the junior cruiser category. Another silver medal followed a year later in São Paulo. In 2007 she won the bronze medal in the BMX competition in the Supercross World Cup. At the 2007 World Championships in Victoria, Canada, Sarah Walker started with the seniors. In the BMX competition she won another silver medal. In cruising, she became world champion for the first time.

At the 2008 World Championships in Taiyuan (China), she took third place in both the BMX and cruiser rankings. BMX riding became an Olympic sport in 2008. At the Beijing Olympics in 2008 Sarah Walker was one of the favorites at the start. She was able to qualify for the final run, but only took the ungrateful fourth place there. Another bronze medal in the Supercross World Cup followed in the same year.

At the 2009 World Championships in Adelaide she was then double world champion. She won the gold medal in both the BMX and the cruiser class. 2010 in Pietermaritzburg and 2011 in Copenhagen each followed a silver medal in the BMX classification. In 2010 she was third at the Supercross World Cup. In 2011 she won the overall ranking. Sarah Walker made it to the finals again at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. This time she finished second and won silver. Despite an injury, a dislocated shoulder, she qualified for the Olympic Games by finishing fifth in the semifinals of the 2012 World Championships in Birmingham.

In a Supercross World Cup race in September 2014, Sarah Walker suffered serious head injuries in a fall. Only after five months could she intervene in the racing again. Due to further injuries, etc. a. After having broken a cross in February 2016, she was unable to qualify for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic competitions .

IOC membership

In 2016 Sarah Walker was elected to the IOC Athletes Commission and thus an IOC member. She also works on the Women's Sports Commission and the Heritage and Sustainability Commission.

Web links

• Sarah Walker in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Short biography on the IOC membership list

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Article in the Rotorua Daily Post of September 5, 2005
2. ↑ Article in the New Zealand Herald of May 27, 2012 (Eng.)
3. ↑ Article in the New Zealand Herald of August 22, 2016 (Eng.)