Brad Walker article in Seattle Times 5/4/08
Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 4:15 pm
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."
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."
