She was the golden girl-next-door, who brought home Olympic medals in every hue. Now Barbara Kendall’s daughters are making their own sporting mark. Suzanne McFadden talks to the one-time “rebel” about new challenges, the toll her glory days have taken, and the “best ever” advice she lives by.
Barbara Kendall is wearing a navy blue blazer, its lapels adorned with precious pins decorated in gold, silver, and bronze. It’s a special occasion – and the first time in 27 years she’s taken the Olympic badges out of their boxes.
New Zealand’s Olympic “rainbow girl”, having won a medal in every hue, Barbara feels it’s finally time to wear the pins with pride.
She’s put on her Olympic jacket for the funeral of her idol, and friend, Yvette Corlett, who died in April, just days short of her 90th birthday.
As Yvette Williams, she was the first New Zealand woman to win Olympic gold, competing in the long jump in Helsinki in 1952. It would be another 40 years until her incredible achievement was repeated by another Kiwi woman – this time a 24-year-old, sunny blonde by the name of Barbara Kendall, racing a windsurfer in Barcelona.
Yvette was one of the first people to come round and congratulate Barbara when she arrived home in Auckland back in 1992 with her own gold medal. Together, they were New Zealand’s first “golden girls”.
So Barbara thought it was only right that on the day she bid farewell to the woman who inspired her to Olympic greatness, she should finally bring out her honors. “It was poignant, and it was necessary, to wear them today,” she says.
You see, Barbara has always been a bit of a rebel when it comes to ritual and ceremony. “I’ve always been very anti-wearing pins to display who I am,” she says. “But now that I’m 51, I realize I actually have to stand up and honor tradition. I think it’s important for the younger generation to understand the importance of tradition because I’m afraid that we’re losing it.” Young women like her two teenage daughters, Samantha and Aimee.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der June 2019-Ausgabe von Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der June 2019-Ausgabe von Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
PRETTY WOMAN
Dial up the joy with a mood-boosting self-care session done in the privacy of your own home. It’s a blissful way to banish the winter blues.
Hitting a nerve
Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes could aid physical and mental wellbeing.
The unseen Rovals
Candid, behind the scenes and neverbefore-seen images of the royal family have been released for a new exhibition.
Great read
In novels and life - there's power in the words left unsaid.
Winter dinner winners
Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of budget-concious recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.
Winter baking with apples and pears
Celebrate the season of apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the cold weather blues away.
The wines and lines mums
Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.
Former ballerina'sBATTLE with BODY IMAGE
Auckland author Sacha Jones reveals how dancing led her to develop an eating disorder and why she's now on a mission to educate other women.
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START
Responsible for keeping the likes of Jane Fonda and Jamie Lee Curtis in shape, Malin Svensson is on a mission to motivate those in midlife to move more.