Sarah Walker is balancing her role on the International Olympic committee championing innovation, inclusion and the future of sport with being a mother to two young daughters. Mary Anne Gill meets the BMX champ who now calls Cambridge home.
Sarah Walker has a bike collection in her garage, including a BMX one. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Sarah Walker was born in Whakatāne and raised in Kawerau but, for the past 16 years, Cambridge has provided her with the right vibe.
The 36-year-old former world champion, Olympic silver medallist and mother of two has become an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the King’s Birthday honours for her services to BMX and sports governance.
“I’m really stoked that it is for BMX and was led by BMX,” she says. “That has been such a massive part of my life, and I wouldn’t be anywhere without it.”
When we meet her, Walker is in the garage of her central Cambridge townhouse assembling acoustic wall panels. Her seven-month-old daughter sleeps upstairs, while her three-year-old is at a nearby early learning centre. Just days later, she’s off on a plane to Switzerland for an esports forum — baby in tow, as she’s still breastfeeding.
Walker’s role on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has taken her around the world. She joined the IOC Athletes’ Commission in 2016 and was elected as a full member in Paris last year.
She now sits among 109 global leaders, including Prince Albert of Monaco, Princess Anne, and Sir Sebastian Coe.
One of Walker’s most forward-thinking contributions has been in the realm of artificial intelligence. After raising the issue with the IOC’s director general, she was appointed chair of a group tasked with developing an AI strategy for the Olympic Games.
She told them they could not afford to be left behind.
Sarah Walker. Photo: Jeremy Smith.
Walker moved to Cambridge in 2009, before it became the Home of Cycling, to flat with Regan Barkla, a school friend from Whakatāne and New Zealand rower.
At the time she was part of the BMX high performing academy but had no training base or community.
“I wanted to move to somewhere I would be around other athletes and not feel so lonely.
“When cycling was looking for a town to be based out of, I highly encouraged them to come to Cambridge. I had the choice to come here, and I also had the choice to leave, and I haven’t.”
She even tried rowing, briefly, just to understand the sport that surrounded her.
Sarah Walker claimed the elite honours at the National BMX Championships in 2019.
“I learned all the lingo and then I went out in a boat a few times to understand what it felt like and I did a couple of two kilometre ergs (ergometer) to understand what they did. It was good but it also made me very grateful for my sport.”
Today, her garage holds not just her old BMX bike, but bikes for her husband, hunting guide Vincent Elliott, and their oldest daughter who already knows how to navigate the BMX track’s ups and downs.
Her IOC appointment is unpaid and she is one of only a few New Zealanders to serve on the committee, joining the ranks of Barbara Kendall and former governor generals Arthur Porritt and Bernard Freyberg.
She also presented Olympic gold medals to canoeist Lisa Carrington —twice in Tokyo and once in Paris, while seven months pregnant and cleverly hiding her bump under a blazer.
Governance is where Walker sees her future.
“As an athlete you’re really detailed, focused and this is more big-picture thinking, so it took me a while to transition to not getting caught in the detail,” she says.
“Every year I’ve intentionally done courses in different areas and did a lot of governance courses at the beginning because it’s very much deep end.”
Students line up behind Sarah Walker for the first official ride on the track in 2017.
Despite her global commitments, Cambridge stays her anchor.
It is the right size, the right vibe, she says.
“When I lived in Auckland, the training was amazing but outside of training it was overwhelming for someone that was from such a small town.”
Even after winning silver at the 2012 London Olympics, back home in Cambridge she could go to the supermarket, and no one bothered her. In Kawerau they gave her a civic parade.
And she is a fan of the cycleways – “it’s not just professional athletes you see out being active” – knowing she can ride safely around the town with her daughters, especially the three-year-old.
“Cambridge has got that really cool, positive, relaxed feel to it and I really love that.”
Sarah Walker, at home in Cambridge. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
