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Bianca Cook, also known as Bianca Walkden[1] (born 29 September 1991) is a British taekwondo athlete and Olympian. She is a three-time World champion, twice World Grand Prix champion, four-time European champion and a double Olympic medallist.[2][3]

Bianca Walkden

Personal information
Nickname(s)	Queen B
Born	(1991-09-29) 29 September 1991 (age 31) Liverpool, England
Education	Fitness and Exercise Management
Life partner(s)	Aaron Cook
Sport
Country	Great Britain
Sport	Taekwondo
Weight class	Heavyweight
College team	The Manchester College
Club	Liverpool Elite Taekwondo
Team	GB Taekwondo
Achievements and titles
World finals	1st (2015), (2017), (2019)
Olympic finals	(2016),(2020)
Medal record Representing  Great Britain Women's taekwondo Olympic Games 2016 Rio de Janeiro +67 kg 2020 Tokyo +67 kg World Championships 2015 Chelyabinsk +73 kg 2017 Muju +73 kg 2019 Manchester +73 kg Grand Slam 2017 Wuxi +67 kg 2018 Wuxi +67 kg 2019 Wuxi +67 kg Grand Prix 2016 Baku +67 kg 2017 Moscow +67 kg 2017 Rabat +67 kg 2017 London +67 kg 2017 Abidjan +67 kg 2015 Samsun +67 kg 2015 Manchester +67 kg 2018 Manchester +67 kg 2018 Taoyuan +67 kg 2018 Fujairah (F) +67 kg 2019 Chiba +67 kg 2019 Sofia +67 kg 2014 Suzhou +67 kg 2015 Moscow +67 kg 2018 Rome +67 kg European Championships 2014 Baku +73 kg 2016 Montreux +73 kg 2021 Sofia +73 kg 2022 Manchester +73 kg 2018 Kazan +73 kg 2010 Saint Petersburg +73 kg World Combat Games 2010 Beijing +67 kg World Junior Championships 2008 Izmir +68 kg European Junior Championships 2007 Baku +68 kg

Career

She represented Great Britain at 2016 Olympic Games winning a bronze medal.[4] Walkden is a triple World champion, four time European champion, and twice World Grand Prix Final champion in her division.^{[citation needed]} In 2017 she became the first practitioner ever to win all 4 Grand Prix events in her division in a single season (having also won the one-off Grand Prix Final in London of the truncated 2016 season).^{[citation needed]}

In May 2015, she won the gold medal in the +73kg category at the 2015 World Taekwondo Championships in Russia beating Gwladys Epangue in the final. She became only the second Briton to win a world title after Sarah Stevenson in 2001 and 2011, and the third to win a global title after Stevenson and Jade Jones' Olympic success in 2012.[5]

In June 2017, Walkden successfully defended her world title in Muju, South Korea during the 2017 Muju WTF World Taekwondo Championship.^{[citation needed]} She beat American Jackie Galloway 14–4 in the heavyweight division.^{[citation needed]} She joins Jade Jones as the only British practitioners to defend a global title, and becoming the only Briton to successfully defend a World title in taekwondo.^{[citation needed]}

In May 2019, at the 2019 World Taekwondo Championships, Walkden won the women's heavyweight title after Zheng Shuyin was disqualified after attaining a 20–10 lead. Faced with Zheng's subsequent inactivity, Walkden adopted the tactic of repeatedly forcing her opponent out of the ring to raise her penalty points from seven to ten, an automatic disqualification. This resulted in boos during the result announcement and medal presentation, when Zheng fell to her knees. Great Britain performance director Gary Hall took issue with her "disrespectful manner" at the presentation.[6] Walkden defended her tactics, saying: "I went out there needing to find a different way to win and a win is a win if you disqualify someone - it's not my fault."[7]

In September 2019, at Chiba, four months after winning the controversial gold medal in Manchester, Walkden was defeated 7-5 by Zheng Shuyin.[8] In October 2019 at Sofia, Zheng Shuyin again defeated Walkden by 3–2.[9]

In 2021, she won the gold medal in the women's +73 kg event at the 2021 European Taekwondo Championships held in Sofia, Bulgaria.[10][11]

Personal life

She has been in a relationship with British-born Moldovan taekwondo fighter Aaron Cook since 2008, and the pair married in 2022. She has lived with fellow British taekwondo fighter, and double Olympic champion, Jade Jones, in Manchester, since 2010. The trio train almost every day at GB Taekwondo's National Taekwondo Centre.[3]

References

External links

• Bianca Walkden at TaekwondoData.com
• Bianca Walkden at Olympedia
• Bianca Walkden at the British Olympic Association

На других языках

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[de] Bianca Walkden

Bianca Walkden (* 29. September 1991 in Liverpool) ist eine britische Taekwondoin, die im Mittel- und Schwergewicht aktiv ist.

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- [en] Bianca Walkden

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[it] Bianca Walkden

Bianca Walkden (Liverpool, 29 settembre 1991) è una taekwondoka britannica, vincitrice della medaglia di bronzo alle Olimpiadi di Rio de Janeiro 2016 e di Tokyo 2020 nella categoria oltre i 67 kg.

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