Photos: Robert Trathen
This year, Kiwi athletes, including rowers Lucy Spoors, Brooke Francis, Emma Twigg and diver Lizzie Roussel, raced to get cuddles from their kids in Paris after competing at the Olympics.
Beautiful moments – but a far cry from when Barbara Kendall CNZM windsurfed her way into history books, competing in five Olympic Games and winning 11 World Championship medals. Because at that point, athletes – and their children – were expected to be seen and not heard, spurring Barbara into a life-long journey advocating for athletes’ global rights and welfare.
Barbara’s foray into the business end of sports began almost 30 years ago, at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
“I won a silver medal, but I was made to feel like I’d lost the gold,” recalls Barbara. She’d won gold at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. “There are no photos of me winning or of me getting my medal. The only photos were taken at my house after I got home.”
Determined that no one should be made to feel the way she did, Barbara became a trailblazer, taking the role of inaugural chair of the Oceania and Continental Athletes Commissions, and serving on the International Olympic Committee (IOC)Athletes commissions for nine years from 2005.
“I suddenly found myself in a businesslike world of acronyms. I had no idea what I was meant to be doing,” recalls Barbara. She attended her first official IOC meeting in Switzerland with her then three-month-old baby Aimee. “My first meeting, I didn’t understand a word.
“I couldn’t afford a babysitter and I was breastfeeding, so I didn’t have any choice. But it gave me the opportunity to be very vocal about the need to provide for mothers serving as female global sporting leaders.”
Since then, Barbara has been an international changemaker and advocate for athletes. In 2020, she redesigned an athletic online education platform, which has supported more than 60,000 athletes, and earlier this year went to Switzerland with her Self Discovery programme, which helps athletes build a “me map” on who they are and what they want, helping them find purpose and fulfilment, and work out what to do next. She was also the High Performance Coach for this year’s NZ Women’s Waterpolo World Championships in Doha.
Barbara’s tireless work has led to her becoming the first woman from Oceania to be awarded an Olympian for Life by the World Olympians Association, an accolade honouring Olympians who have used their experience to make the world a better place. The award is only bestowed on five Olympians at each Games, and one Barbara is proud to add to her already bursting trophy cabinet for her work as a performance coach, ambassador and global sports leader.
“It’s an awesome feeling,” says Barbara. “Getting this award means I can use it to carry on showing other athletes what’s possible out there,” says Barbara. But her path has been anything but plain sailing. She says this is due in part to adrenal burnout and menopause.
“It all started about 10 years ago,” says Barbara, 57. She lives in Whangaparāoa, North Auckland, with her husband Shayne Bright, 59, and their daughters Samantha, 23, and Aimee, 19. “Brain fog, night sweats, body aches, no sleep – all that stuff makes you start to doubt yourself.
“I don’t even like calling it menopause as it’s more like burnout. You burn the candle at both ends, and push yourself constantly because you’re Superwoman. But you can’t rely on hormones to help you stop feeling so tired. I’ve been working in a very political world for so long and continually resetting. I’ve had to pull back a bit and work out where I want to go next.”
Meanwhile, Barbara is happy at home with Shayne and her two daughters, both of whom are water babies. Samantha plays water polo at a national level and wants to work on superyachts. Meanwhile, Aimee is a swim school instructor and sail coach, and was named the 2023 NZL Sailing Foundation Young Female Sailor of the Year.
“I love working with people and building their potential,” says Barbara. “That’s what I love about working with the waterpolo girls too. As a mum, you have to be different to a coach, but for any athlete to succeed, you have to allow them to fail, so they come back the next day stronger. As a mum, that can be heartbreaking. But they have to learn that sometimes the wrong headspace is the right headspace.”
It’s a lesson Barbara herself is learning – again.
“I loved competing and my life’s work has been as a voice for athletes,” she tells. “Giving back, being a role model and helping people means everything to me. And if I get paid for it, that’s a bonus. Now that’s over, I’m not sure where the wind will blow me next. But I’d love to have the financial freedom to keep working in this space where my wisdom and experience is needed.”
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