How Kelsey-Lee Barber is helping lead the charge for Australia's female athletes around the world

Lachlan McKirdy

How Kelsey-Lee Barber is helping lead the charge for Australia's female athletes around the world image

Kelsey-Lee Barber became a household name when she won gold at the 2019 World Championships for Javelin, and while COVID-19 disrupted her competition schedule, it hasn't stopped her from making her mark.

As we celebrate International Women's Day, Sporting News is launching the third season of the Remember The Name podcast. 

This season we'll be celebrating and providing a platform to some of the many athletes set to represent Australia at the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics from July. 

We thought who else would be the perfect first guest for the new season than world champion Kelsey-Lee Barber. 

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Barber is a vocal advocate for wider recognition of women's sport and uses her platform regularly to champion the issue. 

And she believes that it has been evident in recent years that the growth of women's sport is no longer phase, it is a genuine movement that has gathered plenty of momentum for the future. 

"I think the last few years, we've seen a massive push for support in women's sport," Barber told the Remember The Name podcast. 

"It's so great to see because coming from an athletics background, there has always been a little bit more equality in terms of male and female. 

"I'm in full support of continually growing this movement, because yes it's got a little bit of momentum but let's not stop there, let's continue to encourage it. 

"Let's see it grow because when we see it grow, we see more depth in it which then brings the levels up and makes it more competitive."

One of the key differences that Barber has noticed is that there are more pathways for younger girls to become engaged in sport. 

The increased professionalisation of many sports means that girls can turn their passion for sport into a career that can sustain them into the future.  

"I'd love to see more females continue in sport, through their later teenage years into their late-20s and on," Barber said. 

"I think there are more avenues for young girls to pursue different sports now which I think is really awesome. 

"It doesn't just have to be recreational, there are avenues where they can go more elite or pro. 

"Which is great because we want people to live more active lifestyles.

"If they want to pursue sport, they now have the opportunity to do that across the board. There are not just one or two sports you can do that in. 

"From an athletics point of view, the same thing applies. If we can have more girls stay in the sport, then the talent pool and the competitiveness is there and you raise the bar. 

"Suddenly we're filling teams every year with three javelin throwers on top of a few nipping at your heels to make the teams. That is an awesome environment to setup for athletics in Australia."

After winning gold at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Barber was preparing for a massive 2020 where she was set to go into the Olympics as the reigning World Champion. 

However, fast forward almost 18 months and due to a combination of injury and of course COVID-19, Barber spent the longest stretch of her career without a competition. 

For many athletes, that lack of opportunity to prove themselves may have caused them to lose focus. 

But for Barber, it made her more determined than ever to grab her chance when the Olympics came back around. 

"That was my last competition," Barber said. 

"I was meant to come out the start of last year and our Brisbane Track Classic was scheduled for the first week of March and that was essentially the same week that everything dominoed with COVID in Australia. 

"It's been a long time. I have such mixed emotions about last year. 

"I certainly felt like I was on top of the world, on top of my game and I just wanted to continue that into 2020. It was supposed to be a really big year. 

"On paper, it looked amazing. I was going to enjoy it as a World Champion. 

"It didn't play out that way, and there are sometimes I get frustrated by that. 

"But I think 2020 gave me the opportunity to grow as an athlete a little bit. There are elements of last year, some self-growth stuff I wouldn't have got if I had been out competing. 

"It makes me stronger coming into my competitions this year. There's a lot from last year, on top of the strength and technical work we've done, that I can be a better competitor."

Barber is set to finally get back out on the track this Thursday at the Canberra Track Classic. 

She'll be part of a competitive field, chomping at the bit at the AIS Athletic Field to finally get their 2021 season underway.

You can listen to the full episode of Remember The Name with Kelsey-Lee Barber on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or using the player below.

 

Lachlan McKirdy

Lachlan McKirdy Photo