©  2008 Bob Burns and Pacific Association. All rights reserved.

2008 Pacific Association/USATF Olympian

Brad Walker Profile

By Bob Burns

PA/USATF Feature Story Reporter

Brad Walker’s home base is Seattle, where the training facilities are ideal. But when he feels like adding a little kerosene to his Olympic fire, Walker ventures far off the beaten track, to an abandoned warehouse on Rough and Ready Island.

Walker, the world outdoor champion and U.S. record holder in the pole vault at 19 feet, 9¾ inches, frequently trains with Tri-Valley Athletics, an elite group of athletes coached by Dan Pfaff. They join forces several times a week in a 40,000-square-foot facility in the Port of Stockton.

The old Navy warehouse – Building 812, as is scrawled, graffiti-style, on the door – doesn’t exactly conjure up “Field of Dreams.”

“There’s no insulation, no windows,” Walker said. “We just grab our equipment and get to work.”

As you might have guessed, it’s not the setting so much as the company. Pfaff is one of the most accomplished field-event coaches in the sport. Amy Acuff, a three-time Olympian in the high jump, is a warehouse regular, as is Suzy Powell-Roos, a two-time Olympian in the discus. Walker is joined by fellow vaulters Tommy Skipper, Tye Harvey and Becky Holliday.

“The energy in that building is 100 times what it is in Seattle,” Walker said. “The group we have is one of the few in the country with just elite athletes. There are a lot of people there to keep the energy level high.”

Walker hopes to carry that energy with him to Beijing, China, where he is expected to contend for a gold medal. To make it to the Olympics, Walker must first finish in the top three at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials in Eugene, Ore.

The men’s pole vault final is scheduled for June 29, eight days after his 27^th birthday. Earlier this month, at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Walker broke the eight-year-old U.S. record with his 19-93⁄4 clearance.

The memory of his record jump should serve him well when he returns to Hayward Field, but Walker knows the Trials are an entirely different beast.

“It’s dangerous to make it this huge, daunting task, but you can’t get the fact that the Olympic Trials is the Olympic Trials out of your mind,” Walker said. “You just try to concentrate on the task at hand and keep your head straight. If I jump the way I can, I should be able to get through.”

A two-time NCAA indoor champion while at the University of Washington, Walker finished sixth at the 2004 Olympic Trials in Sacramento in his first season out of college. The following year, he won a silver medal at the 2005 IAAF World Outdoor Championship in Helsinki and was ranked No. 1 in the world by Track & Field News. In 2006, he joined the exclusive six-meter (19-81⁄4) club and ranked second in the world.

Last year, he reclaimed his top world ranking after winning a gold medal at the World Outdoor Championships in Osaka, Japan.

After breaking the U.S. record at the Prefontaine Classic, Walker took a pair of unsuccessful shots at 20-21⁄2 – a quarter-inch higher than Sergei Bubka’s 1993 world record.

“I wanted to give it a shot,” said Walker, who is now fourth on the all-time list. “Unlike other events except the high jump, you look at the world record and you either make it or you don’t. You’re staring the world record in the face.

“The more times I take a shot at it, the better. Four inches in the grand scheme of things isn’t that much.”

Walker is powerfully built, carrying 185 pounds on a 6-foot-2 frame. But what sets him apart, according to Jen Stuczynski, the U.S. women’s record holder in the pole vault, is his head. Walker graduated with a business degree from Washington.

“Brad is a student of the game,” Stuczynski said. “He’s very intelligent and disciplined. His technique is amazing, and he’s willing to sacrifice.”

Sacrifice is essential, since pole vaulting is brutal on the body. At the 2006 World Indoor Championships in Moscow, Walker fell and hit his head outside the landing pit during a practice vault prior to the competition. After undergoing a CAT scan, he managed to win the final.

“It’s a risk vs. rewards thing,” Walker said. “In the pole vault, the person who’s ready to risk the most often comes out on top. You can’t be second guessing and worrying about what injury might happen.

“At this level, we’re all talented. The mental aspect becomes way more important. A lot of the mental game is being fearless. You have to stand on the runway and tell yourself, “I’m really going to hit this one.’”

His career is clearly taking an upward arc. With the exception of 2007, when he was the world’s top-ranked performer, he has raised his personal best every year. He just hopes he has the warehouse on Rough and Ready Island to return to following the Olympics.

He and his training mates are trying to raise money that will keep Pfaff on board. Besides, the conditions in Building 812 aren’t that Spartan.

“We used to train in an old farm building,” Walker said. “Now we have electricity and music. It’s a big improvement.”

Links to more information about Brad Walker:

USATF bio

Brad's Web site