Full set of metal earns Kendall spot in history
The Herald is counting down New Zealand’s 25 greatest Olympians. Dana Johannsen profiles No 8, boardsailor Barbara Kendall
One of the most enduring images from the 1992 Olympics is the sight of a beaming Barbara Kendall celebrating madly at the top of the podium.
At 24, the boardsailing great cemented her place in New Zealand Olympic history, becoming the first woman to win gold since Yvette Williams 40 years earlier.
But she was not even the first in her family to win Olympic gold. Her older brother Bruce had done so four years earlier in Seoul, adding to the bronze medal he picked up at the LA Games in 1984.
Kendall had almost given away hopes of emulating Bruce in winning an Olympic boardsailing gold when she broke her wrist earlier in the year. Fortunately, the Olympic trials were delayed, giving her time to recover and prepare, often by training with Bruce and other top male competitors.
With a less than ideal build-up, Kendall went to Barcelona — where the women’s boardsailing class was included in the Olympic programme for the first time — with few expectations. The young Kiwi established a lead mid-way through the regatta, but the racing remained tight throughout, with Kendall needing a sixth place or better in the final race to secure gold. She finished third.
The win kicked off a trifecta of medals for Kendall.
She came close to retaining her Olympic title at Savannah in 1996, but eventually had to concede to Lai-Shan Lee, of Hong Kong.
The Auckland boardsailor completed her set of Olympic medals by winning bronze in Sydney in 2000, becoming just the third Kiwi behind Mark Todd and Simon Dickie to win medals at three separate Olympics.
There was speculation Kendall might retire at that point, and when she and husband Shayne Bright had their first child, Samantha, in 2001, it seemed even more likely.
Instead Kendall came back to be as dominant as ever, regaining the world crown in 2002 (she had won the title previously in 1998 and 1999) in Thailand at the age of 36, and earning selection for her fourth successive Olympics with two subsequent second placings at world championships.
She should have been in the medal mix in Athens as well, but two devastating results, where she was ruled to have crossed the start line too soon, ultimately cost her.
A look at her finishing placings shows just how costly her two false starts were: 1-9-27-2-27-5-5-3-1-1-4.
“I definitely feel like I threw away a medal in Athens,” said Kendall. “One of them (the false starts) was my fault, the other wasn't. It was just about the only time in 15 years I wasn't in the top three at a world championship or Olympic event, so I was shattered.”
That disappointment may have been the motivation for Kendall to give it another crack in Beijing, qualifying for her fifth Olympic Games at the age of 40. She finished a creditable sixth at her final Olympic competition, eventually retiring in 2010 after 24 years at the top of her sport.