Barbara Kendall

Barbara achieved international recognition by winning New Zealand’s only gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the first woman in New Zealand to do so for 40 years. In 1989 she was awarded the AGC Young Achievers Award, which helped her continue on the professional circuit. She is a 4-time World Champion, Olympic Gold, Silver and Bronze Medallist windsurfer. She was racing P Class boats at the age of 12 and attained success in a variety of classes at a national level. At 16 she tried windsurfing as a serious sport and entered her first world competition in Scotland in 1984. 20 Years later she is still at the top of her sport after competing in her 4th Olympics in Athens 2004.

Her drive and commitment to success are endless. She has numerous world titles to her credit, many being achieved after overcoming extreme trauma and adversity. She claimed her first in 1987 when she won the World Production Class Championships in Sweden.
Barbara won a Gold Medal at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, a Silver Medal at 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and a Bronze at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. She won her first World Championship title in Sweden in 1987 with wins in 1998, 1999 and 2002. She has been the NZ national woman’s champion for 20 years.
Her achievements and dedication to her sport have been widely recognised, firstly with the prestigious AGC Young Achievers Award and later the Commemorative Queens Medal, the MBE and the Yachts person of the year award in 1992 and 1998, and has been awarded the NZ Sportswoman of the year in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2002.
Barbara works for Sport and Recreation NZ as a sports ambassador teaching youth how to be the best they can. She sits on the High Performance board for yachting NZ; she is on NZ’s Athletes Commission and just recently has been appointed onto the International Olympic Committees Athletes Commission, which is a first for NZ. Barbara most importantly became a mother in 2001 and continued to compete a year later, proving mums can do anything by winning the world champs later in 2002. She has since had her second daughter. Barbara is the New Zealand Youth Windsurfing Coach for Yachting New Zealand and also works for the Hillary Commission as a Junior Ambassador for Sport – a tremendous role model for young and old alike!
Barbara is now campaigning for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. With a gold, silver and bronze already under her belt she wants to add to this tally. Barbara’s natural warmth, vitality and enthusiasm have won the hearts of all New Zealanders and she has instant audience appeal, whether she is sharing Olympic anecdotes or secrets to her success. Her story is one of hard work, goal setting, discipline, motivation, determination and passion. It hasn’t been an easy road and a lot of her success has been achieved after extreme trauma and adversity.
A tremendous role model for young and old alike.