Brad Walker article in Seattle Times 5/4/08

[patchdoggydogg]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/o ... tes04.html

Meet Brad Walker, Seattle's most anonymous superstar.

He's a pro, but not a Sonic, a Mariner or a Seahawk. Unlike any of them, he's ranked No. 1 in the world in his sport: pole vaulting.

He's the favorite for Olympic gold in Beijing this summer. He has won two world championships, including last year's title in Osaka, Japan.

Walker has vaulted just 6 inches shy of his sport's Holy Grail, Sergei Bubka's 15-year-old record of 20 feet, 2 ½ inches.

He was a two-time NCAA champion before graduating from Washington, where he still trains at the Dempsey Indoor facility, splitting his time there with a Stockton, Calif., club.

Yet most residents of Mountlake Terrace, where Walker lives, and Seattle in general, don't have a clue a possible medalist is in their midst.

"If people see him at a grocery store, he just looks like a guy in good shape," said Blake Bidleman of Bellevue, Microsoft analyst and former UW teammate. "You hear about some guy in Triple A [baseball] who gets called up for two games and everybody knows his name. Here, you've got a guy who's a gold-medal contender and nobody knows who it is."

[rainbowgirl28]

There was also a short blurb about him in the latest Seattle magazine

[LHSVaulterJJR]

is walker still dealing with that back injury? he had some bulged discs which had him laying off of training for a while.