![]() Walker in 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Sarah Louise Walker | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nickname | Shazza | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | [1] Whakatāne, New Zealand | 10 July 1988 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in) [1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 74 kg (163 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Current team | ![]() | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Discipline | BMX racing | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Role | Racer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rider type | Off road | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Sarah Louise Walker (born 10 July 1988) is a New Zealand BMX racer. A competitor at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics, she won silver in the Women's BMX at the latter event. Missing out on selection for the 2016 Summer Olympics due to injury, she was elected onto the IOC Athletes' Commission during those Games. In 2022, she was elected as its second vice-chair. [2]
Walker was born in Whakatāne in the Bay of Plenty, and grew up in nearby Kawerau. [3] Of Māori and European descent, [4] she attended Kawerau South School [3] and Trident High School in Whakatāne. [5]
Walker took up BMX due to sibling rivalry; she wanted to be able to do what her younger brother could do, and do it better than him. [6] In the 2008 season UCI Rounds, Walker won seven races, came second in one race and didn't race two races. She was ranked number one in the world by the UCI in 2008, [7] and was one of the favourites to win the BMX women's event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, in the end she finished fourth. [6] Walker has won a total of twelve New Zealand 20" titles from 1999 to 2011.
On 25 July 2009, Walker won the BMX World Championship in Adelaide, Australia in both the Elite Women and the Elite Cruiser Women events. [8] [9]
At the 2010 BMX World Championship in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, Walker finished second in the Elite Women's event, with first place going to Shanaze Reade. A crash during the Elite Cruiser event meant that Walker was not able hold on to her 2009 championship title. [10]
In 2011, Walker made the podium in three out of four World Cup events to win the overall World Cup title, winning the Papendal Supercross in the Netherlands, second at the Test Event in London and third in South Africa. The fourth event was in USA where she finished sixth. [11]
At the 2012 Supercross in Norway, Walker dislocated her shoulder, which almost put her out of contention for the Olympics in London. After six weeks, she had to qualify for the Olympics at the World Championships in Birmingham, England where she did so with a fifth place in the semi-final. [12]
At the September 2014 UCI BMX Supercross World Cup race in California, Walker had a fall and suffered a serious head injury. [13] Whilst her helmet cam recorded her calmly giving detailed accounts to medical staff of what happened to her, she has no recollection of the entire day. She had daily headaches for the next six weeks, and it was five months before she received medical clearance. [6] As of February 2016, Walker has experienced a total of 15 fractures during her BMX career. [14]
As well as competing in BMX events around the world, Walker has also been the marketing face for Beef + Lamb New Zealand since 2008. [15] She is a sponsored rider for Avanti Bikes, using their line of ABD BMX bikes when racing. [1]
Walker wanted to become an Olympic athlete ever since watching New Zealand swimmer Danyon Loader receiving his gold medals at the 1996 Summer Olympics. [6] She was about to start track cycling and quit BMX when it was announced as an Olympic sport for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, [6] and this was the first Games she attended, competing in the women's BMX. In the medals race, she ran a time of 38.805, finishing fourth. In the same event at the 2012 Summer Olympics she got a silver medal, with a time of 38.644. [6] She missed being nominated for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro due to breaking her arm during training in February 2016. [6] During the Rio Games, it was announced that she had been elected onto the IOC Athletes' Commission; whilst initially missing out to Yelena Isinbayeva, president Thomas Bach proposed that Walker be added to the group. [16]
Walker is an ambassador for Beef and Lamb New Zealand, alongside other athlete ambassadors Lisa Carrington, Eliza McCartney and Sophie Pascoe. [17]
Shanaze Danielle Reade is a British former bicycle motocross (BMX) racer and track cyclist whose prime competitive years began in 2002. She has won the UCI BMX World Championships three times. Reade is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Irish mother.
The women's BMX racing competition at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on August 20–22 at the Laoshan BMX Field, the first to be officially featured in the Olympic cycling program.
Lieke Klaus is a Dutch BMX racer.
Samantha "Sammy" Cools is a Canadian BMX racer. Born in Calgary, Alberta, she was introduced to the sport by her brothers Ken Cools, coach of the New Zealand BMX team, and Greg. She currently lives in Ganddal, Norway.
Caroline Buchanan is an Australian cyclist who has won multiple world championships in BMX racing and mountain biking. She represented Australia at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics in the women's BMX event.
Mariana Pajón Londoño ODB OLY is a Colombian cyclist, two-time Olympic gold medalist and BMX World Champion.
Stefany Hernández is a Venezuelan racing cyclist who represents Venezuela in BMX racing. She represented Venezuela at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the women's BMX racing event. She was fifth in her semifinal heat and not succeed to qualify into the final. Her final standing was ninth. She became BMX World Champion on 25 July 2015 at Zolder, Belgium.
María Gabriela Díaz is an Argentine professional BMX cyclist. Emerging as the world's most decorated female BMX rider in history, Diaz has claimed multiple Argentine national titles, six Pan American championship titles, and five medals in women's elite category at the UCI World Championships. She also won two medals, including a prestigious gold, in the same category at the Pan American Games, and later represented her nation Argentina at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
New Zealand competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's twenty-third appearance as an independent nation at the Summer Olympics, having made its debut at the 1920 Games and competed at every Games since. The New Zealand team consisted of 199 athletes, 100 women and 99 men, across twenty sports, the first time New Zealand was represented by more women than men at the Summer Olympics.
Eliza McCartney is a New Zealand track and field athlete who competes in the pole vault and won the bronze medal in this event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She is the current New Zealand and Oceania record holder at 4.94 m, and is the outdoor world junior record holder at 4.64 m. She also won the silver medal at the Summer Universiade in 2015. In 2018, she placed second at the Commonwealth Games.
Olivia Rose Podmore was a New Zealand professional racing cyclist. She represented her country at the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Felicia Stancil is an American female BMX rider. Stancil has won 14 UCI World Titles including the 2012 UCI BMX World Championships titles for Junior Women and the Junior Women Time Trial in Birmingham, United Kingdom. A year later she successfully defended both titles at the 2013 UCI BMX World Championships in New Zealand. At the 2015 Pan American Games, Stancil won gold in her first international win as a professional. The win resulted in the first gold medal won by the United States at the 2015 games. After reaching the final in all ten races on the 2019 UCI BMX Supercross World Cup series, Stancil finished out the year 2nd in the overall standings. Adding on to her successful 2019, Stancil was awarded the 2019 Golden Crank Pro of the Year Title by Pull Magazine.
Nadja Pries is a German BMX racer, representing her nation in international competitions. She competed in the time trial event and race event at the 2015 UCI BMX World Championships.
Amelia Walsh is a Canadian female cyclist. She started as a BMX rider at age 15. She won several provincial championships before she began representing her nation at international competitions. She competed in the UCI BMX World Championships in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Prior to that she competed in the 2009 World Junior Championships. She was the Canadian BMX Women's Champion title holder in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Sarah Harvey is an Australian female BMX rider, representing her nation at international competitions. She competed in the time trial event and race event at the 2015 UCI BMX World Championships.
Anthony Dean is an Australian BMX cyclist. He qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics & The 2020 Tokyo Olympics and competed in the men's BMX Racing.
The 2016 in cycling results is given as follows:
Saya Sakakibara is an Australian cyclist competing in BMX racing events.
Bethany Kate Shriever is a British cyclist, competing as a BMX racer. A World Junior champion in 2017, and winner of the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup final event in Zolder in 2018, in 2021 Shriever won both the Olympic and World titles, equalling the feat of Colombian Mariana Pajón, who won Olympic silver.
Leila Walker is a BMX racer from New Zealand. She became New Zealand national champion in 2024 and was selected for the 2024 Summer Olympics.