Olympic sled hope Walker endures poor start to 2026

Walker had gone into her winter break with spectacular back-to-back World Cup wins in Lillehammer and Sigulda, marking her as a live contender for monobob gold at the Milan-Cortina Games in February.

But as the countdown to the Italy Games restarted on Saturday, the high-flying 33-year-old driver suffered by far her worst World Cup result of the season, finishing only ninth as falling snow made conditions more difficult on the track in the central German winter sports resort of Winterberg.  

The slip-up may have ruined Walker's hopes of challenging for the overall World Cup title, as German double world champion Laura Nolte took victory and increased her lead in the overall standings to 76 points over the second-placed Aussie, who had begun the day only three points behind.

It was by far Walker's worst finish of the season, having come third, fourth, first and first in her other four races during the campaign and she'll be hoping this was just a temporary blip in what's been a smooth slide towards the Games monobob, that will take place on February 15th and 16th at the Cortina Sliding Centre.

On her home track, Nolte landed her second World Cup win of the season with Canada's Cynthia Appiah matching her best career monobob showing for second place, with Germany's defending two-time World Cup champ Lisa Buckwitz third.

Nolte clocked 1min 58.37sec for her two runs, as she finished 0.16sec clear of Appiah and 0.20 ahead of Buckwitz, who was left disappointed after leading following the first run. 

Walker, who had enjoyed a break with her family back at her training base in Canada, was fifth after the first run but plummeted to ninth overall after she could only finish 12th quickest in the field on her second outing, clocking 1:58.86 -- alarmingly, almost half-a-second down on the winner.

Australian Associated Press