Bree Walker has claimed the first Australian world cup podium of the Olympic season.
 
Walker continued her strong start in World Cup competition, with an impressive performance in the monobob discipline in  Innsbruck, Austria, taking home the bronze medal in the second event of the IBSF tour.
 
Monobob is set to make its debut at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, with Walker regarded as one of the leading athletes in the sport, having finished the 2020-2021 season ranked second in the world.
 
The 29-year-old from Queensland was in second place after the first round of competition and moved back one place to finish in third place after the second run.
 
The event was won by American Elana Meyers Taylor, with German Laura Nolte in second.
 
“We made a few important changes this week which obviously had a huge impact”, said Walker after stepping off the podium.
 
“This race certainly gives me confidence, but this season is a marathon, not a sprint, so we hope to build of this result and continue to trust the process for the rest of the season.”
 
Also in action for Australia was Ashley Werner, who finished in 21st place.
 
Walker and Werner will be back in action tonight in Innsbruck, competing in the two-woman bobsleigh World Cup.

IMAGE: IBSF/Viesturs Lacis

Jackie Narracott has placed 19th in the second IBSF World Cup of the season in Innsbruck, Austria. 

Competing for the second week in row on the Igls track, Narracott was 1.73 seconds behind event winner Elena Nikitina from Russia.

In the men's event, Dean Timmings competed in his first World Cup of the season, finishing in 29th place.

The Bobsleigh and Skeleton tour now heads to Altenberg, Germany, for the next round of World Cup of competition next weekend.

Bree Walker has made a strong start at the opening Woman's Monobob World Series event in Innsbruck, Austria, narrowly missing the podium in sixth place.

In a tight race, after two runs just 0.25 seconds separated Walker from event winner Elana Meyers Taylor of the USA, and just 0.11 from claiming the bronze medal.
 
Rounding out the podium was Meyers Taylor teammate Kallie Humphries in second place with German Laura Nolte in third.
 
"I'm very happy to start the season off with a top six place," said the 29-year-old Walker.

"Of course we always look for the podium but this is a very different year.

"No-one is messing around and you can see that by how tight the field is but it makes for really fun racing.


Ashley Werner also made her debut in a Monobob World Series event, finishing in 19th place.
 
Both athletes are aiming to compete for Australia when Monobob makes its debut at the Beijing Olympic Winter Games in February.
 
Werner and breakwoman Kiara Reddingius also made their World Cup debut in the two-woman bobsleigh event, finishing the highest placed  Australians in 19th, with Walker and her breakwoman Sarah Blizzard just behind in 22nd.
 
The Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Cup tour will remain in Innsbruck for one more week, with additional weekend of competition next weekend..

IMAGE: ©Rekords/IBSF

Competing in her first World Cup event for almost 12 months, Jackie Narracott has had a confidence boosting performance at the opening IBSF Skeleton World Cup in Innsbruck, Austria.
 
The 2018 Olympian was sitting in 18th position after the first run, but had a strong performance in her second run, recording the eighth fastest time of all competitors and a much improved final two-run ranking of 13th.
 
Taking the win was Russian slider Elena Nikitina, with Kimberley Bos of the Netherlands in second place, and Kim Meylemans of Belgium in third.
 
“I am happy with my result today”, said the 31-year-old from Queensland.
 
“My second run was much more indicative of my capability and I'm glad I got the chance to show it.
 
“I knew I had that run in me if I got my composure back to the level it needed to be. Also keeping my sled straight out of the groove helped a lot! In run one, neither of those things were as good as I would've liked and with the way the other girls are sliding you've got to be on your game at all times.
 
“Being back on the World Cup tour feels like home and I'm loving being back with friends. I missed it last year.”
 
Also in action for Australia in the men’s event was Elliot Brown, who made his World Cup debut finishing in 29th place.
 
The Skeleton athletes will remain in Innsbruck for another week, with a second World cup event taking place on the Igls track next weekend.

IMAGE: ©Rekords/IBSF

Figure skaters Brendan Kerry and Kailani Craine have earned Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic quota places for Australia after strong performances at the Nebelhorn Trophy in Germany.

With only seven male and six female quota spots remaining in the men's and women's singles competition, the 2018 Winter Olympians Kerry and Craine performed fantastically under the pressure of this event being their last chance to secure a quota, ensuring Australia will be represented in men's and women's singles figure skating at Beijing.

Team Australia featuring Dean Hewitt and Tali Gill has finished in thirteenth place overall at the 2021 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships in Aberdeen, Scotland.
 
Taking part in their first competition since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, Hewitt and Gill were one of 20 teams at the event, with the top seven nations achieving direct qualification to the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.
 
Team Australia finished its Group A Round Robin with a record of 3 wins and 6 losses, missing out on advancing to the playoff stage.
 
The highlight was no doubt the 3-point win over curling powerhouse, Canada, with Hewitt and Gill emerging victorious 8-5.
 
Wins were also recorded against Hungary and Spain.

The event was won by Scotland, who defeated Norway in the final 9-7.
 
Hewitt and Gill have one last chance to qualify for Beijing later this year at the Olympic Qualification Event, with the top two teams securing a place in the Olympic field. One of the ten places in the Olympic field will be taken up by China, who is already guaranteed a place as host nation.

IMAGE © WCF

2018 NSWIS Olympian Kailani Craine has just fallen short of qualifying for the free program at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, finishing in 26th place.

The 22-year-old from Newcastle scored 56.86 points in the opening short program at the World Championships, missing out on the 24-woman-final by just two spots in 26th place.

The women's podium was was an historic clean sweep for Russia, with 16-year-old Anna Shcherbakova taking victory with Yelizaveta Tuktamysheva in second place and Aleksandra Trusova in third.

In the Ice Dance event, Australia was represented by Holly Harris and Jason Chan who also just fell short of advancing to finals.

The Ice Dance couple finished the rhythm dance program in 24th place, missing out by four places for the free dance in their World Championship debut.

Victory in the ice dance also went to Russia, with the team of Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov in first, with Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue of the USA in second and Canadian pair Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier rounding out the podium in third.

Unfortunately two time Olympian Brendan Kerry was unable to compete in the men's due to an injury sustained earlier in the season.

IMAGE: Kailani Craine at the World Championships in Stockholm

Greta Small has completed the 2021 FIS Alpine Skiing World Championships in Cortina d'Amprezzo, Italy, with a personal best performance in the alpine combined event.

The two time NSWIS Olympian finished in 15th place, bettering her previous best finish of 18th in the same event in 2015 at Vail/Beaver Creek.

Earlier in the week Small finished the downhill in 28th place and was 37th in the super-g.

"Good times in Cortina at my Fourth World Championships" Small posted after the race.

"After a year of uncertainty, coming back from injury and only a couple weeks of race preparation in the past two years, it was a joy and accomplishment to be at the start gate.

"Stoked with my best ever Worlds result of 15th in the combined.

"Thank you to all my supporters racing down Olympia Delle Tofane was fun."

Also in action at the World Championships was Snow Australia racer Hugh McAdam, who had to take part in the qualifier events in giant slalom and slalom. 

McAdam qualified in fifth place in the giant slalom, but unfortunately did not finish in the first run of the main event.

In the slalom qualifier, McAdam did not finish in the first run, missing out on qualifying for a start in the World Championship race.
 
IMAGE: Spectacular sunny conditions for Greta Small at the World Championships in Cortina, Italy © Greta Small Instagram

Bree Walker has claimed her third medal of the northern hemisphere winter, taking bronze in the final monobob event of the season in Königssee, Germany.

The podium performance moves the QAS athlete into second place on IBSF end of year rankings in the new Olympic sport which will make it's debut in Beijing 2022. 

Walker finished just 0.54 seconds behind Swiss sliders Melanie Hasler and Martina Fontanive who tied for first place.
 
"This season we set our standards high, despite there being a global pandemic and this resulted in our biggest and best season by far" Walker commented.

"Medals and top ten finishes against the most competitive fields the sport has seen in many years, so we are very proud of what we have been able to achieve for Australia."

"Hopes are that we can just go from strength to strength as a team.

"This will require a lot of hard work and dedication to our sport and finding sponsors to help us go even faster (we are going to need the support that’s for sure) but this season has really motivated us and we are going to put everything we have into this Olympic year."

Walker had planned to finish her two woman bobsleigh season at the final event of the World Cup season in Konigsee, but the event was cancelled due to a track temperature equipment malfunction.

With the season now finished, Walker will now return back to Australia.

IMAGE: Bree Walker celebrates with her third place trophy in Königssee © Bree Walker Instagram

QAS athlete Bree Walker has had a difficult week at the IBSF World Championships in Alttenberg, Germany, unable to finish in the monobob experiencing mechanical failure & rolling her Bobsled in the third heat.

The Altenberg track is notoriously unforgiving and rated as one of the most challenging on the global circuit. True to form it proved treacherous for a number of competitors in this years World Championships. 

At World Championship and Olympic sliding events, four heats take place to decided the winner, and after the first two heats on day one Walker was in 15th place, 2.11 seconds behind first place.

Racing in the third heat on the second day of competition, Walker had a great start recording the third fastest start time and was set for an improved run before her sled toppled over towards the end of the course. After sliding upside down for a section of the track, the sled did recover and Walker was able to complete her run ranked 18th overall after three heats.

After the incident in the previous run, Walker was forced to withdraw from the fourth and final heat due to mechanical breakage of her sled.

Walker will now compete in the final monobob world series event next weekend in Konigssee, Germany, on February 20.

IMAGE: Bree Walker in the start gate at Altenberg © IBSF TV

Two time Olympian Greta Small has competed in the FIS Alpine World Championship speed events in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, with weather impacting the first week of the event. .

After a 3 day weather delay, conditions finally improved and the women's super-g was the opening event at the World Championships, with the NSWIS skier finishing in 37th, 5.49 seconds back from the event winner Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland.

In the downhill Small was the 28th skier across the line, 3.41 second behind Corinne Suter who made it a Swiss double in the women's speed events.

Small has one event left in Cortina, the alpine combined event on tonight. The format for the alpine combined event is a super-g event up first, with athletes then competing in the slalom, with the times from both events added to determine the winner.

Snow Australia racer Hugh McAdam will be making his World Championship debut in the giant slalom and slalom events.

McAdam will need to compete in the qualifying event in each discipline, with the top-25 advancing to the medal events.

The schedule for McAdam in Cortina is
Giant slalom qualification event - Thursday, February 18
Giant slalom medal event - Friday, February. 19
Slalom qualifying event - Saturday, February 20
Slalom medal event - Sunday, February 21
 
IMAGE: After the first three days were impacted by bad weather, it was great to see the return of sunny skies in Cortina © FIS Alpine

The two-woman Bobsleigh team of QAS pilot Bree Walker and breakwoman Sarah Blizzard have been unable to compete in the opening event of the IBSF World Championships in Altenberg, Germany, after two crashes in training.

Walker posted on social medial the decision to withdraw from the two-woman event.

"I’m never one to give up, I always find a way to make it happen. Our team is always the ones that get back up, get back in and goes again. But as I have grown as an athlete I have also learnt when pushing through could do more harm then good.
.
"In preparation for the 2021 World Championship in Altenberg, Sarah and I had two rough crashes that left us feeling pretty beat up.

"This track demands respect and with not having a spare teammate and the way we were feeling we had to weigh up whether competing this weekend would bring us the results we knew we were capable of.
.
"So it is with a heavy heart, we have decided not to race in the two-man event this weekend. We had to think about our own health as we still have a lot that we want to achieve in the next year leading towards the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Good luck to everyone who is competing this weekend and we will see you back next week for the Monobob event."
 
Walker will be back in action competing in the Monobob event at the World Championships later this week on February 13-14.

Walker is the equal world number one in Monobob after the last event in Austria, and the QAS athlete will be back in action competing at the World Championships in that event later this week on February 13-14.
 
IMAGE: Bree Walker and Sarah Blizzard in Winterberg earlier in the season © IBSF / Viesturs Lacis

Snow Australia has announced two athletes who will represent the Australian team at the upcoming 2021 FIS Alpine World Championships including two-time NSWIS Olympian Greta Small and World Championships debutant Hugh McAdam.

Twenty-year old Hugh McAdam will join top Australian Alpine skier Greta Small in Cortina (Italy), where the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships start next Monday and run until the 21 February.

Small recently made yet another World Cup comeback from a torn ACL injury, the third major knee injury in her career, and will compete in the Downhill, Super G and Alpine Combined in her fourth FIS World Championships.

McAdam will have to make his way into the Giant Slalom and Slalom World Championships races through the qualifying events, scheduled on the 18 February and 20 February respectively. McAdam needs to finish in the top-25 in those races to advance and start in the medal events.

AUSTRALIAN ATHLETES COMPETITION SCHEDULE

2021 FIS Ski World Championships - Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy

    Monday, Feb 8 - Greta Small, Alpine Combined - Women
    Tuesday, Feb. 9 - Greta Small, Super-G - Women
    Saturday, Feb. 13 - Greta Small, Downhill - Women
    Thursday, Feb. 18 - Hugh McAdam, Giant Slalom Qualification Event - Men
    Friday, Feb. 19 - Hugh McAdam, Giant Slalom - Men*
    Saturday, Feb. 20 - Hugh McAdam, Slalom Qualification Event - Men
    Sunday, Feb. 21 - Hugh McAdam, Slalom - Men*

*if qualified
 
IMAGE: Greta Small carving up the slopes last season at Club Med resort in Valmorel © Chris Hocking/OWIA

Article courtesy of Snow Australia

Bree Walker has continued her great form in the monobob event, taking gold in the World Series event in Innsbruck, Austria, and moving into equal first place on the world standings.

The QAS athlete defended her victory from earlier in the season in Innsbruck, making it one of her favorite tracks for competition. Walker has now competed in eleven monobob events, emerging victorious an impressive seven times in the new Olympic event which will debut in Beijing 2022.

Walker also set both a new start and track record during the first run in Innsbruck.
 
The result will no doubt give Walker plenty of confidence heading into the 2021 World Championships, which will take place in Altenberg, Germany in mid February.

Finishing in second place 0.23 seconds behind Walker was American Elana Meyers Taylor, with Melissa Lotholz from Canada 0.38 seconds in third place.
 
“We are still trying to work out the new monobob sleds, but it seems we have worked it out here,” Walker said after the race.
 
“I’m over the moon to come back here and defend my win from earlier in the season in a much stronger field this time.”
 
“I knew my process well here, so I just stuck to the plan and it paid off.”
 
“I’m excited to compete in my second world championships in Altenberg, so will focus on working out my process there and executing it to the best of my ability.”
 
Walker teamed up with breakwoman Sarah Blizzard. the following day to compete in the two two-woman bobsleigh World Cup.

The pair finished in 13th place, 0.83 seconds behind the event winners from America Kaillie Humphries and Lolo Jones.

Walker and Blizzard will now prepare for the 2021 World Championships, which will take place in Altenberg Germany. The World Championships open with the two woman bobsleigh on February 5-6 with monobob scheduled to take place on February 13-14.
 
IMAGE: Bree Walker celebrates victory in Innsbruck  © IBSF / Viesturs Lacis

NSWIS athlete Greta Small has made a successful return to World Cup competition, with a personal best finish in the downhill at Crans Montana, Switzerland and 2.45 seconds behind the winner, Sofia Goggia of Italy.

Small finished in 34th place, eclipsing her previous best World Cup downhill result of 36th achieved in January 2018.

Small posted after the race:"comeback race is in the books and a PB in World Cup downhill, let's keep working!"

Small also took part in another downhill and super-g in Crans Montana, but did not finish her run in both events.

Next up for Small is the World Cup event in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany, with a downhill on January 30 and super-g on January 31.

IMAGE: Greta Small last season at Club Med resort in Valmorel © Chris Hocking/OWIA

QAS athlete Bree Walker has competed in two events at the World Cup in Königssee, Germany, with a ninth place finish in the Monobob and 12th in the two-woman bobsleigh.

In the monobob event, Walker was in 12th place after the first run, but had a much improved second run to record the seventh fastest time of the round.

Interestingly and very promising for future improvement was that Walker was in the four fastest starters on both runs.

This gave Walker and overall placing of ninth, 1.25 seconds behind the event winner Kaillie Humphries of the USA. Rounding out the podium was Humphries American teammate Elana Meyers Taylor in second with German Stephanie Schneider in third.

On Sunday Walker teamed up with breakwoman Sarah Blizzard in the two-woman event, finishing in 12th place,

The pair were sitting in ninth place after the first run, and had the 13th fastest second run, finishing 1.09 seconds behind event winners from Germany Kim Kalicki and Ann-Christin Strack.

In second place was the German team of Stephanie Schneider/Leonie Fiebig, with Americans Elana Meyers Taylor/Sylvia Hoffman in third.

The World Cup tour will now head to Innsbruck, Austria, for a monobob event on January 30 and bobsleigh on January 31.
 
IMAGE: Bree Walker and Sarah Blizzard last week in St Moritz © physioelite_usa

QAS athlete Bree Walker has recorded two top-10 performances at the World Cup Bobsleigh events over the weekend in St Moritz, Switzerland.

Competing on the spectacular hand cut ice on the natural St Moritz track, athletes had a difficult week with lots of snow falling, making training difficult ahead of the competition days.

In the monobob event on Saturday, Walker finished in seventh place, 1.03 second behind the event winner, Kaillie Humphries of the USA, with Laura Nolte of Germany in second and Martina Fontanive of Switzerland in third.

On Sunday Walker teamed up with breakwoman Sarah Blizzard in the two-woman event, finishing in ninth place, their fourth top-10 of the season. 

Taking the win was the German pair of Stephanie Schneider/Leonie Fiebig, with Americans Elana Meyers Taylor/Sylvia Hoffman in second place, with the Swiss team of Melanie Hasler/Irina Strebel in third.

The World Cup tour will now head to Konigssee, Germany, for a monobob event on January 23 and bobsleigh on January 24.
 
IMAGE: Bree Walker and Sarah Blizzard on the scenic St Moritz track © Rekords

The bobsleigh team of pilot Bree Walker (QAS) and breakwoman Sarah Blizzard have made a strong start to 2021, with a ninth place finish in the World Cup event in Winterberg, Germany.

The team had the ninth fastest run in the opening round, and then stepped it up in the second run to record an impressive fifth fastest time on the Winterberg track.

Taking the win was the German pair of Laura Nolte/Deborah Levi with the second German team of Kim Kalicki/Ann-Christin Strack in the silver medal position, with Katrin Beierl/Jennifer Onasanya of Austria in third.

"Very happy to kick the new year off with another top-10 result in Winterberg and with the progress we are making in the two-man this season" Walker commented after the race.

The next World Cup on the IBSF bobsleigh tour will be in St Moritz, Switzerland, with a monobob event on January 16, and a two woman event on January 17.

IMAGE: Walker & Blizzard happy (smiles under the mask) with their start to 2021 in Winterberg © Rekords

The bobsleigh team of pilot Bree Walker and breakwoman Sarah Blizzard have finished 2020 with back-to-back top-ten performances in Innsbruck, Austria.

Innsbruck hosted a second weekend of World Cup events to reduce travel for the teams during COVID, with the pair finishing in a personal best eighth place a week earlier.

Walker and Blizzard were sitting in ninth place after the first run, and managed to go faster in the second run but recorded the 11th fastest run of the round. After the two runs of competition the final finishing position was tenth.

"Top ten finish and another start PB", said Sarah Blizzard after the race.

"Now time for Christmas break and we go again next year".

The next World Cup on the IBSF bobsleigh tour will be in Winterberg, Germany, on January 9.

2018 Olympian and QAS athlete Jackie Narracott has made an encouraging start to the 2020-2021 World Cup skeleton season, with an eighth place performance in Innsbruck, Austria.
 
Narracott had been based in Bath, UK, preparing for the northern hemisphere winter, and only returned to the skeleton track a week prior to the World Cup.
 
It was a PB result for Narracott on the Innsbruck track, easily eclipsing her previous best 15th in January 2020.
 
Narracott was in ninth position after the first run, but improved in the second round with the sixth fastest run, giving her an overall placing of eighth.
 
The event was won by Austrian Janine Flock, with Kimberly Bos of the Netherlands in second and German Jacqueline Loelling in third.
 
The next World Cup on the IBSF Skelton tour will be in Winterberg, Germany, on January 8.

Bree Walker has started her season in the best possible way, taking gold in the monobob World Series event in Innsbruck, Austria.

Walker has now competed in eight monobob events, emerging victorious an impressive six times in the new Olympic event which will debut in Beijing 2022. 

Finishing in second place 0.44 seconds behind Walker was German Laura Nolte, with local Austrian slider Katrin Beierl 0.56 seconds in third place.

"The edge I believe has come from all the work I have done off the track this summer," the QAS athlete commented after the race.

"This year hasn’t been easy. I wasn’t able to go back to Australia because of COVID, but I have been able to spend the summer training in Germany with my push coach and some of the best bobsleigh athletes in the business. This time allowed me to solely focusing on becoming the best athlete I can be so I have made huge improvements physically and mentally.
 
"It’s an unbelievable sight seeing the 1 next to your name but honestly it didn’t really hit me until I saw my bobsleigh teammate Sarah run up to me and give me a huge hug. Even though this is more of an individual event i honestly couldn’t of done it without my team."
 
"My goal is to continue to progress my pushing and driving skills in both the monobob and twoman events and this time actually make it to the big dance. Unfortunately last time I missed out on the 2018 Winter Olympics, so now my team and I have full focus on doing everything it takes to qualify for the 2022 Winter Olympics. From there anything is possible."

The competition in Innsbruck was the first Monobob event to be run in conjunction with a BMW IBSF World Cup.

Walker will be back in action tomorrow in Innsbruck, competing in the two woman bobsleigh World Cup  with breakwoman Sarah Blizzard.

Alpine Skiing
Greta Small continued her injury rehabilitation at the AIS in Canberra making great progress with the Strength and Conditioning Staff in the gym before heading to Jindabyne for most of the winter to return to on snow training. After leaving Jindabyne, Small returned to the AIS for a further six-week intensive Strength and Conditioning bock.
 
Small is planning on heading to Europe for on snow training in mid December.
 
Bobsleigh
Bree Walker has been in Europe since last winter preparing for the northern hemisphere season, and has taken part in a number of successful push and sliding camp activities.
 
Unfortunately, Walker was unable to compete at opening two World Cup events in Sigulda, Latvia, after a member of her support team tested positive for COVID.
 
Bree is now planning for the next event on the Bobsleigh World Cup tour in Innsbruck, Austria, on December 12-13.
 
Curling
Mixed doubles pair Dean Hewitt & Tahli Gill have been training in their home states, with Hewitt at the Victorian Institute of Sport and Gill at the Queensland Academy of Sport.

With International travel restrictions in place it has been very difficult to access overseas Curling Ice to date.

The pair are aiming to be back on the ice training perhaps in Asia, by January in preparation for the 2021 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships in late April. The event has been moved to Europe, with the exact location to be announced.
 
Figure Skating
Brendan Kerry has been based in Europe, training in France and Russia.
 
Kerry was scheduled to compete in the Internationaux de France ISU Grand Prix event in mid November, but it was unfortunately cancelled due to COVID restrictions in France.
 
Kailani Craine has remained at home in Newcastle training at her local ice rink, with Ice Dance couple Chantelle Kerry Andrew Dodds also training in Sydney.
 
Skeleton
Jackie Narracott has been training in Bath, UK, preparing for the northern hemisphere winter.
 
Narracott is currently evaluating the best plan, locations and opportunities for training and competition during the international season due to the difficult COVID situation in Europe.

The AOC is deeply saddened by news of the passing of 2018 Winter Olympian Ekaterina (Katia) Alexandrovskaya in Moscow.

Katia was twice Australian national champion in pairs figure skating with her partner and Australia’s first Indigenous Winter Olympian, Harley Windsor. The pair represented Australia at PyeongChang 2018, placing 18th.

Chef de Mission for the 2018 Australian Team in PyeongChang, Ian Chesterman, says the news is a terrible blow for all those who knew Katia, who was a popular member of the Australian Team in South Korea in 2018.


“It is enormously sad to lose Katia who was a vibrant and talented person and an incredible athlete.

“She was quiet and humble in her manner but incredibly determined to be the best she could be.


“Katia was an important member of our Team in PyeongChang, who loved the opportunity to compete with Harley and embraced her time in the Australian Olympic Team.


“We are all deeply saddened to hear the news today. Life since the Games has not been easy for her and this is another timely reminder of just how fragile life is.


“Katia’s death is another blow to our winter sports community who is still reeling from our loss of Chumpy Pullin.


“But we are a close-knit community that will continue to offer support to each other at this incredibly sad time."


Olympic Winter Institute of Australia CEO Geoff Lipshut says Katia has a special place in Australia’s winter sport history.


“Katia and Harley were Australia’s first figure skating World Champions. She came to Australia to fulfill her sporting dreams.


“With Harley, they were World Junior Champions and World Junior Grand Prix Champions in 2017 and then proud members of the 2018 Australian Olympic team in Korea, 2018.


“The news today is so sad, my thoughts are with Katia’s family in Russia , Harley and the skating community in Australia. I will remember Katya as a young person of great talent and remarkable potential,” Mr Lipshut concluded.

OWIA Bobsleigh athlete Bree Walker has continued her great form in the new Olympic sport of monobob, winning back to back events over the weekend in La Plagne, France.
 
Walker has now won three straight monobob events, having won the last event she entered in at Königssee, Germany, back in mid December.
 
On day one Walker finished 0.78 seconds ahead of Karlien Sleper of the Netherlands, and on day two the winning margin was a close 0.07 seconds ahead of Andreea Grecu of Romania. On both days Mica McNeill of Great Britain finished in third place.
 
Sarah Blizzard, who competes as a breakwoman for Walker in the 2-woman bobsleigh event, made her monobob debut, finishing in 14th place on day one, and 11th place on day two.
 
The final competition of the season for the athletes will be in Lake Placid, NY, USA, with a monobob event scheduled to take place on April 3.

IMAGE: Bree Walker, and Sarah Blizzard with Margot Boch of France.