Kate Walker fighting for her Olympics dream

Keeping Olympics hopes alive is tough when you've lost financial support. NICK?MASHITER reports how one hopeful is coping.

Kate Walker buries her head in her hands at the mention of the Olympics.

We're sitting in a Bath University cafe as she sips hot chocolate and dreams about the London Games.

"I can't even talk about it because it brings it all home. This is why I do it because I feel so emotional about it, I want it so much," she says.

"It's not something you turn around and say 'oh well, I might go to the Olympics'. I've been thinking about it for so many years – all you do is aim for it."

And, for the Kidderminster judo hopeful things haven't been easy. Injuries and a loss of funding have put her dream on the line.

For her, just making the Games after two injury-hit years would represent a huge achievement.

Two shoulder injuries – in January 2010 and April 2011 – were compounded when she was stripped of her funding last month.

It was a hammer blow, taken after she had slipped from 63rd in the world to 109, and means she is mostly self-funded.

Deals with Sports Aid and John Lewis Partners in Sport help her compete but she has already shelled out up to £3,000 to fight since the start of the year.

One call from British Judo saw her world turned upside down six months before the Games, leaving Walker stunned.

"I was quite deflated because it felt like they didn't believe in me," said the bubbly 22-year-old. "I felt getting back from injury is a struggle enough, then for this to happen I wondered whether they actually want me to get to the Olympics.

"I wondered whether they actually felt I could get there when they were doing this to me at such a late stage.

"It was quite demoralising and I've had a lot of chats with my coach at Team Bath, Juergen Klinger, my parents (Cath and Paul) and Andrew Haffner (coach at Samurai Judo Club in Kidderminster).

"November and December were really difficult to deal with. Especially going away with the team and not officially being in the selections, when I have been for the last four years.

"I'm still treated the same way but it feels like I'm not part of it and it is quite difficult to deal with."

She jetted to Warsaw, Poland, yesterday for the weekend's World Cup competition – the last before the European Championships in April – knowing she must perform to keep her Olympics hopes burning bright.

But Bristol-based Walker did beat her main rival for a spot – Faith Pitman – en route to second place in the British Senior Championships last month.

It means she is tinged with injustice. She won the battle against Pitman, a rival in the U63kgs category, but may lose the war.

"If Faith goes to the Olympics in the summer I'll be thinking 'I've just beaten her. I feel as good as her but she gets to go and I don't'," says Walker, who suffered a labral tear in her shoulder two years ago.

"I've trained for the last three or four years to get here but it feels unfair that it can come down to the fact I've had an injury. If I hadn't got the result it would be plain on paper and you can deal with that.

"But having an injury means you haven't gone to the same competitions or had the same opportunities."

Distractions have helped. Her pharmacy degree, from which she graduates from this summer, allows a different focus – something to rely on should the worst happen.

She admits judo "won't pay the mortgage" and wants to become a hospital pharmacist once her career is over.

But recent adversity has made her stronger, quitting isn't an option.

"I don't think I've ever said I'll call it a day," said Walker, who started the sport when she was eight. "It does put a downer on it and you do think 'why am I doing this?' but I've had time to think about it and now I am fighting better than I have done before.

"If anything it's made me feel a bit more that I want to prove to them and myself I can do it. It makes you want to do it for yourself rather than everyone else.

"My dad always says you don't want to look back and regret. I know I've got this time now and I'm not going to have it again. I don't want to ruin it.

"Getting there after what I've been through in the last two years would mean everything has been worth it, every bit of effort."

If you would like to sponsor Kate please email katelouisewalker@hotmail.co.uk