22 April 2024
Trail blazer. Icon. Advocate. Olympian. Volunteer. These are all words that describe Barbara Kendall, who we were incredibly lucky to host at Hibiscus House when she gave a talk to volunteers and staff in April.
Barbara, 56, shared how she came to be a world-class Olympic athlete, breaking barriers not only in her chosen sport, but also for women in sport. Here's her hugely inspirational story.
Where it all began
Barbara took up windsurfing when it was little-known in New Zealand, and getting herself to the Olympic Games and other world competitions was no easy feat. She came from a family that “didn't have a lot of money” and it wasn’t until later in her career that she started receiving sponsorships. Sleeping on floors at airports and “hustling” to transport her boards and equipment from one event to the next became a way of life.
She competed in her first windsurfing world championship when she was only 16 years old. She went with her 18-year-old sister, Wendy, who was also a talented windsurfer and sailor, using money that their family had fundraised.
“We made it all the way there – with no coach, no manager, no parents for support. It was cold, it was windy and we had to eat fried haggis for breakfast. I got so homesick I cried myself to sleep every night and I did terribly because of the weather and because I’d never sailed the types of boards they had in Scotland," she says.
But there was one race where Barbara came 12th “and that was like this little golden light came on”. “I thought, ‘I can do this. I just haven't got enough experience.” So Barbara returned to New Zealand and left school so she could focus on training, making ends meet by teaching dancing. She went back to the World Championships the following year, in 1985, and came third.
Hawaii waves and hardship
Windsurfing didn’t become an Olympic sport for women until 1992, so with no clear pathway to follow Barbara moved to Hawaii to compete on the professional world circuit. She says it was a time in her life like no other where tens of thousands of people would turn up at beaches to watch competitors battle it out on the waves in exciting events like wave sailing (which is a bit like surfing).
In Paris she competed in a giant swimming pool where giant fans were brought in to generate waves. “Events like these would sell 40,000 tickets These were the stories that didn’t get told,” she says.
But while the lifestyle was crazy-fun and Barbara was extremely successful, it was a tough existence.
“I was by myself and I’d turn up to venues with so much equipment – like six boards ,15 sails, 15 masts and gear bags. I had to hustle at airports to get my gear on the plane and once I arrived at a competition I never had any idea how I’d be getting from A to B because I was too young to rent a car. I slept on airport floors or in containers and competition tents because I had no money. If I didn't place in the top five, I wouldn't earn enough to get to the next event.
"I remember going home to Mum and Dad and bursting into tears at the kitchen table. I said, ‘This is too hard. I can't do this by myself.’”
The Olympic dream
But if there’s one thing Barbara couldn’t bring herself to do, though, it was give up. She continued competing on the world circuit and was ecstatic when women’s windsurfing was added to the 1992 Olympic Games schedule. She began preparing to compete at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with her brother, Bruce, who was also training towards his third Olympics after winning a bronze in Los Angeles 1984 and gold in 1988.
With her brother by her side she felt unstoppable… until she shattered her wrist, eight months out from the Games, in an accident where a motorboat ran over her in the water.
Surgeons told her she'd never windsurf again and Barbara was devastated. “If I couldn’t windsurf, what was I going to do?” Picking herself up, she turned her focus to rebuilding her life. She bought an old church with the intention of running a dance school. But Barbara’s wrist healed and that unexpected win made her feel almost invincible.
“It made me realise how lucky I was to be an athlete and that’s where I learned all about mindset and how important that is to becoming a real champion. Every time things got hard, I’d think, ‘Stop. You are so lucky to be here.’ By the time I got to Barcelona, I was fast and I was strong. Where the other girls made mistakes I cruised through and enjoyed every moment.”
Barbara won gold. “And it was massive because it was the first gold medal in 40 years for a female in New Zealand. By the time I came home, everyone knew who I was.” She competed in five Olympic Games in total, adding silver and bronze medals to her gold. At her final Olympics in Beijing in 2008 she came sixth – “which was not bad for a 41-year-old”, she chuckles.
Volunteering and speaking up for other athletes
During her thirties, and following a particularly difficult period after the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Barbara threw herself into volunteer work. Her mission was to advocate for athletes and achieve better support for them to deal with the pressures and expectations they faced. Barbara served on the New Zealand Olympic Committee Athletes Commission, which led to her becoming a member of the International Olympic Committee. She went on to serve on 13 other commissions and working groups representing the voice of athletes, women and Oceania in political decision-making organisations around the world. These included the Women in Sport Commission and the Sport and the Environment Commission.
There were no support systems in place for athletes to deal with the huge pressures placed upon them, she says. She had felt this particularly keenly when she’d “only” won silver at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. “The New Zealand media left as soon as the other girl won gold. They didn’t even hang around to see me receive my silver medal and I thought that isn’t right to be made to feel like a loser for getting silver.
“So I began to speak up and I was very opinionated. I was one of the instigators in changing the way an Olympic team is formed, and the way in which we build a team culture to provide a really good platform for athletes to perform at their best. And that's one of the reasons why we are so successful as an Olympic team now. Yes, we do all the training, we've got amazing athletes, but when you get to the Olympic Games and there's a ton of pressure, we have the support systems and processes and culture in place to support the athletes as much as possible.”
Improving the culture for women in sport
Barbara also worked hard to improve the culture for women in sport. In 2005 she was the first IOC member to bring her baby, who she was breastfeeding at the time, to an official IOC dinner. “I sat down with the Secretary General of the Olympic Committee afterwards and said, ‘If you want to keep women in leadership you're going to have to make some dispensations because this isn't doable. At that time there were 115 members on the committee and only 10 of them were women. So they did make changes. Just because women start having families that doesn’t mean they stop being involved in sport.”
Helping athletes transition out of sport
One of Barbara’s proudest achievements has been working with the International Olympic Committee to develop a programme, Athlete@365, Career + Power Up Your Future, that helps athletes transition from sport. She developed it after graduating from university with a Bachelor of Social Sciences when she was 43. The programme is in seven languages, with 30 trainers around the world. “And we've influenced over 40,000 athletes globally,” she says. For all of this and more Barbara was recognised in 2019 for her services to sport with a New Zealand Order of Merit. She is also a Member of the Order of the British Empire for her services to board sailing (she got to meet the Queen!)
In Mummy’s footsteps
“It has been a phenomenal journey,” she says. But now she and her husband of 32 years Shayne Bright feel just as inspired watching their daughters, Samantha, 22, and Aimee, 18, make their way in the world. Samantha is on a water polo scholarship in America, studying psychology. Aimee is “following in her mummy’s footsteps a little bit” in windfoiling, last year qualifying for the Youth World Championships and placing 11th.
“They’re both on their way to doing what they want to do. And as long as they're happy and doing their thing, I’m happy too.”
In recent years Barbara has scaled down her involvement in the IOC to use her experience and success to motivate, advise and coach others in the sporting and corporate world. Barbara runs workshops on high performance, team culture, conscious leadership and health and wellbeing.
She also enjoys her role as Vice President of the International Surfing Association and gives talks to community groups, schools and clubs. Still brimming with energy, you get the feeling she's far from done. “I LOVE inspiring and motivating the next generation and making the world a better place."
To arrange a workshop at your organisation, sports club, school or community group contact Barbara at Barbara@barbarakendall.com
