Passion for javelin has led to travel, world championships
Chance rediscovery of sport from her youth puts Waterloo woman back on the podium
WATERLOO — Barb Dabrowski was always throwing something.
The Waterloo woman grew up in Sarnia, and as a kid, she loved to throw rocks when she was at the beach.
She played baseball and got involved in track and field in high school. But when she first picked up a javelin in Grade 11, she knew immediately this was her sport.
She went on to win a number of Ontario track and field competitions as a teen and continued competing in university. But her interest in track and field was put on hold with marriage, a busy life with four kids, and injuries to her shoulder and knee.
About 25 years after she had last thrown a javelin, she stumbled across the website of the Ontario Masters, which runs athletic events for athletes aged 35 and older.
The discovery reignited her love of the sport. She bought some javelins — sleek, light spears more than two metres long — online. When she turned 50 in 2007, she decided to compete in the world masters championships in Riccione, on Italy’s Adriatic coast.
When she entered, she saw that there were 15 to 20 competitors in her age group, and thought she might have a shot at making it in the top 10.
She went to Italy, and “totally unexpectedly,” won. “That got me hooked.” Now 62, Dabrowski has gone on to win three other world masters championships; in Brazil in 2013, France in 2015 and Spain in 2018.
She throws her javelin about three times a week and works out on other days. She practises in open, grassy areas, well away from people, but because the sport is played outdoors, in winter she practises by throwing balls in a squash court.
Dabrowski feels lucky that she’s had the support and the opportunities to pursue the sport.
Her love for the sport is a “strange passion,” she jokes. “How many 62-year-old women javelin throwers have you ever met?”
A good throw isn’t simply about brute muscle power, but about using your body “like a spring or an elastic,” she said.
The complexity of the technique keeps it interesting, she says.
“There’s always something you can improve upon. It’s not like you figure out how to do it correctly and then you’re done.”
When she first took up the sport again, she used more of her upper body and her arm to throw, but she’s working to use her whole torso to increase her distances. As a young woman, she threw the javelin 50 metres, but now her throws are typically 34 to 36 metres.
“You’re supposed to feel like you’re throwing your whole body forward, like a whip. If your body is a whip, there’s that elastic tension and the javelin goes flying forward like a bow.”
When everything is in sync, it is exhilarating, she said. “It does feel powerful. When you do a good throw, you know in that instant, ‘That was a great one.’ ”