Kelsey-Lee Barber Interview
After the excitement of the Beijing Olympics, we're back to bring you another interview as we chat with two-time Australian Olympic Javelin thrower Kelsey-Lee Barber about her amazing career and amazing Olympic experiences! We find out from Kelsey-Lee just how she got into the sport and why she freakin' loves it so much. We also learn about how making her first ever Australian team felt just like it was just 'business' and how her disappointment at her performance at Rio in 2016 helped spurred her on to the great success she would have moving forward. Added to this we learn why she might be about to make a killing in the t-shirt industry and just why she is possibly the most passionate guest we've ever had on the show about their respective sport. It's a great chat that you have to listen to! So get to it!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
BEN WATERWORTH: It is Off The Podium, an Olympics podcast coming to you today for an interview. Yes, we are back to interviews. We've recovered from Beijing, I think, still living up everything that happened during the Winter Olympics. But we're back to Summer Olympics today. We're going to be speaking with a Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist, two-time Olympian, world champion, two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, and the number one fan of beef in this country, Kelsey-Lee Barber. So excited to bring this chap to you today and learn so much about her journey to winning that bronze medal in Tokyo last year and everything else in between as well. Kelsey gives a great insight into what made her choose Javelin, immigrating to Australia and sort of pursuing that and how the Olympic dream was spurred on by arriving in Australia during the Sydney Olympics, which really sort of helped her through there. And some real great insight into the mentality of Javelin and the physical side of it as well. Obviously, Kelsey-Lee is our first ever Javelin throw out on the show, which you'll hear me talk about in just a moment. So very exciting, great chat here that you are going to enjoy. So here is our chat with two time Olympian Olympic bronze medallist, world champion and two time Commonwealth Games medallist Kelsey-Lee Barber.
BEN WATERWORTH: Very excited to speak to our guest today here on Off The Podium. She is a two-time Olympian, an Olympic bronze medallist, a world champion, a two-time Commonwealth Games medallist, and somebody who freaking loves her sport. I just wanted to point that out there. It's so exciting to speak to our first ever javelin throw on the show as well, Kelsey-Lee Barber, who is with us now on the show. First of all, Kelsey, thank you so much for joining us. It's a pleasure to have you here on Off The Podium.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah, thank you so much. Excited to have a chat.
BEN WATERWORTH: Have you got the t-shirts made yet of I frickin love this sport? Like, I really think there's a merchandise chain here that you can do like an animated pitch with you with a javelin, you know, sell it out there. I mean, it's got to sell itself. I'd buy one. Yeah.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I was going to say, there might be something in that. Should look into it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. I think as soon as you have one of these quotes, it is kind of like heard by the entire country, right? Like, it's just, you've got to mark it that right now, like, and just put it out there. You could have like, I freaking love this sport.com, and then people go to it, and straight away, they're learning how to get into javelin. Like there you go. That's, that's, you get the kids involved. So just helping you out here a little bit at the beginning of the interview.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah, of course. And I actually think, I, in that moment, you have so much going on. There's so much adrenaline. You're like, brain's all a bit fuzzy. I actually completely forgot that that's what my opening statement was in that post-games interview. So I'm going to have to go back and watch it now.
BEN WATERWORTH: The best bit I think about it was that after the closing ceremony, when Channel 7 do their little sort of montage, you know, which I love, I think it's always fantastic. But I think they even, if they didn't lead with it, it was involved in that. So while they're showing all these like highlights to like classical music and slo-mo of all the great moments of the game, they cut to you and they're like, I freaking love this sport. And so, oh, look at that. There you go. So you were even using the end of the Olympics montage.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I think if I've made a montage, job done, that's that's what you want, because those things give you goose bumps most of the time, so yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Tick it off the list. Now, I, as I said, you're our first ever javelin thrower that we've ever had on the show. We've had multiple people from from different field events, and I'm always intrigued to kind of learn how it was javelin that you ended up choosing essentially to pursue. So I sort of what led you to making your life out of throwing a large, is it a stick or a pole? What's the politically correct term I can I can use here?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Oh, I think it's closer to a stick. Definitely.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right, we'll go with stick then.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah, this is a funny one, because I think over the years of explaining how I got into the sport and how I ended up where I am, a lot of it came down to part of it was a good fit for me. The event chose me as much as I chose the event, because there's definitely a distinct point in my life where I competed at a national schools championship meet, I won it. And from that moment on, I just sort of felt like my destiny was laid out for me. I wanted to be a javelin thrower, and I wanted to go to the Olympics for javelin. And I wanted to compete in javelin at every major event and be the best at it in the world. So I just was in, yeah, as I say, in that moment, and especially reflecting on it as I've gotten older, I just realised how much of a pull towards the event there was for me and how much of a fit it was.
BEN WATERWORTH: In terms of Olympics in general, I believe you'd sort of always aspire to go to the Olympics. So outside of athletics, had you been involved in many other sort of sports to pursue this Olympic dream? Could we have seen you at the Olympics in something else besides athletics?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I think it always started out with athletics. I was a very keen netballer early days, but no netball at the Olympic Games. So that one kind of got bumped a little bit to begin with. And then, yeah, it was athletics, and it was really just figuring out which of the events was going to be a good fit. I actually was a discus thrower to start off with, so I was always a little bit more inclined to the throws events. And I actually really loved discus. It was probably my first passion in the sport. But as I said, as I got a little bit older, and as my body matured a little bit, there was just something so exhilarating about throwing the javelin, and I fell in love with it, and I still love it to this day.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is there a point where you're starting athletics and you realise I'm going to be maybe more of a field athlete than a track athlete, or were you always designated towards the field events and running maybe wasn't something that was for you?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Definitely in the second, I was always inclined to field events. Yeah, it was either like the throws, as I said, or it was a long jump, triple jump, and then even occasionally high jump, but I wasn't especially good at that. I think the one track event that I loved and I tried to continue with it for a number of years was the 200 metres. But other than that, it was field all the way.
BEN WATERWORTH: I noticed nobody ever says pole vault, because that's, I swear, one of those ones where like, okay, you might be able to throw something, you might be able to jump something, you might be able to, you know, kind of do that. But nobody does anybody ever when you're doing field events go, hey, I'm going to try the pole vault. That is one of the weirdest events there is in sport, isn't there?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I actually think it's one of the coolest events, I must give them credit. And there were just some events which I wasn't given the opportunity to try at a young age. So it was hurdles, pole vault and hammer that I've actually never even attempted. Because it just wasn't offered at my school carnivals at that point in time. And then it was only as I got to regional and state level events that you'd see those particular events being participated in, but I hadn't qualified to compete in them. So yeah, I think, again, as I got a bit older, those events also seemed harder to try for the first time. So I just thought to the things that I knew well.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now, I believe you were born in South Africa, moved to Australia, and if I'm not mistaken, you moved to Australia around about the time of the Sydney Olympics. So kind of was this when you came to Australia, was that what spurred your passion for the Olympics? Had you sort of grown up in South Africa watching the Olympics, or was it literally you've come to Australia in the midst of our entire country being so obsessed with the Olympics that that kind of just sparked this passion for the games?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yes, it was definitely the fact that I had never experienced an Olympics. I didn't really know what an Olympics was until we came to Australia that year. And as you say, it was just just the hype of it. And I know that Sydney Olympics is iconic. It is generally one of the most highly like spoken about Olympic games. So there was just so much involved in it. And this idea that you could be a professional athlete and compete at this on this stage that was the Olympics really just like blew up my world. I was it was just this thing I hadn't even considered was possible. And suddenly I'm seeing watching people on TV competing in something that they loved. And I think the thing that I still love about watching sport nowadays is just the passion and the dedication that athletes show towards their events and not just in athletics, but in all sports. So yeah, it captivated me. And I think from then on, it was like, cool. This is this is really something that I want to try and pursue.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do you then write yourself sort of like a goal? I know Nicola McDermott sort of had written a future letter to herself, you know, one day, dear future Olympian, do you do you have anything along those lines of, hey, like, you know, dear future Kelsey-Lee, this is what I'm going to do when I grow up. I'm going to be an Olympian.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I think it'd be really cool if I did. It'd be amazing to share those stories or pull out old letters and drawings and things. But I probably kept things quite internal through my youth. And every now and then when I was asked, what do you want to be when you grow up? It was I want to go to the Olympics. But no, nothing written down, which is a shame, because I think those are this awesome memorabilia to hold on to and reflect on. So I'll probably encourage my children in the future to write down their goals, or at least in some way, put it down on paper. I think that's a really wonderful thing. I certainly do it now, a bit more into like my adulthood. I've always written down my goals for the seasons to come. And as I said, it's the best feeling when you get to reflect on that and say that you were able to achieve it.
BEN WATERWORTH: So is this just also writing things down? Is this just something that we're learning with the Australian track and field team that with Nicola and the diary, like is this you're now taking this on board that, hey, like she got silver, I only got bronze. Maybe I need to write more in the diary. And that's, you know, taking it a little bit more seriously heading towards Paris, potentially.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Oh, I think the training diary is something I started when I sort of got into the world of athletics and it sort of became part of being a professional athlete. And I've always been really diligent in forward planning, setting out goals, what I'm working towards, because that really solidifies why you do it day in and day out. And, you know, we talk about having umbrella goals in what we want to achieve in the sport and what I want to achieve in this life of an athlete. But then you come down a few tiers and you have goals that you set out for each season, or even, as I said, like each major championship. So it's really, for anyone out there, it doesn't have to be in sport, but it's so lovely to have something to work towards every day. And especially given this last year through COVID, that was especially important just to remind yourself why you're doing it, but also to take time and reflect on, as I said, the bigger picture of why we continue in this sport overall.
BEN WATERWORTH: The one thing I've always been interested about with Javelin, sort of with all the throwing events, is the unique aspect that you've got more of a running aspect to it than, say, in the discus of the hammer, which is obviously starting from a stationary position. When it comes to sort of the training, and maybe when you decided, hey, I'm going to switch focus to Javelin, how is that balanced? Like, as a Javelin athlete, how much are you focusing on the strength aspect of, I can throw the Javelin this far versus a, I've got to work up on that speed aspect to pick up some speed when it comes to throwing the Javelin?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah, and this is why I love Javelin. This is part of what makes it so exciting to train for, is it really encapsulates so many elements. It's, hey, we very do the delivery, and that has to all come together for the Javelin to fly well. So the training part of it is just as exciting. We get to do running-based activities. We get to do jumping-based activities, and then we get to do the strength side of it in the gym. But then we get to practise the element of actually throwing, the art of throwing, and there's, as I said, there's that part of it alone, which stands out for me, and the subtleties of technical work. But then it's the overall athleticism of being a Javelin thrower that I really love training for.
BEN WATERWORTH: And is there a percentage you can put on it that the run is, say, 40%, the throw is 60%, like, I mean, kind of when it comes to, if you're throwing it, you know, over 60 metres, does it all come down to just a perfect balance, or is there one that is more important than the other?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: No, it is, it is, has to be seamless from start to finish. And this is what I try. When I talk about the throw, I always say that the throw starts from the very top of the runway, the moment you get off the mark, because a lot of the throw comes back to those elements of power and speed, but there has to be like rhythm and finesse and involved with it as well. And that starts from that very first step, and then it has to roll through right to the point of release. So if you can tie all those elements together, that is when your throw tends to come through seamlessly.
BEN WATERWORTH: And is it a sport where, you know, I remember sort of you don't really see it a lot now, but you know, the likes of a Carl Lewis, those sort of people who could do the long jump and the sprinting. Can you recruit sprinters and teach them how to throw because they're fast? Can you recruit a discus throw or a hammer throw because they know how to throw? They just got to work on that, or is it really an event that you need to be starting at a young age and you can't really pull people from another one to give it a try, if that makes sense?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I actually think, again, javelin is one of those ones that we're very unique in that we're not very body type specific, if that makes sense. So it's kind of cool. Like a javelin thrower is kind of all shapes and sizes. And funnily enough, a lot of really good javelin throwers have come from multi-events in the past. We've had some really good heptathletes be international medallists, if not at least competing at world champs and Olympic Games. And I know some of the men's javelin throwers as well had a background in decathlon. So I really feel like if you've got, as I said, like running or jumping based elements in your training, you could very easily come across and they're going to help you be a better javelin thrower. But same, if you're more inclined to just the throwing events to start with, a discus or shot put or hammer, like you've got that throwing element and you clearly love the throws. So there's absolutely no reason why you can transfer that across either.
BEN WATERWORTH: When it came to focus, you've switched to javelin now. This is kind of your one event. You first represent Australia when you go to the Commonwealth Games in 2014. But what was sort of that period like when I've switched focus now to javelin, to eventually getting that first Australia call up? I mean, was it a case of just working your way through the school system, the state system? I mean, sort of were you on the cusp of the Australian team before the 24 Commonwealth Games and making it finally, like, yes, here we go. I'm there. I mean, sort of what was that whole period like?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah. So actually, this is probably really great to sort of explain in terms of the number of years it took to make that first team, because that moment for me, where I decided I was going to be a Javelin thrower was in 2008. And then I finished school in 2010. Gee, my math, I'm having to go back here. But I saw the end of my schooling year was when I decided that that was Javelin was what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a professional athlete. I wanted to prioritise Javelin in what I did. So I still went to uni and worked those years. But I really tried to focus my attention on on Javelin. But yeah, it took me another four years before I made a team. And I had a pretty significant injury in 2012 as well that caused me to step back and make a decision as to whether I was going to rehab it to try and have a go at making an Australian team or whether I was going to rehab it just to continue on with weekend activities. So that was quite a big moment in my life where, again, I was sort of had to make a decision on was this what I wanted to do? And was I going to keep pursuing it to the highest level? And it was an absolute yes from me. So, yeah, there was quite a number of years there where I had to just put in the work. And again, a lot of it was just about getting my body ready or more prepared to throw at the level that would require me to make a team.
BEN WATERWORTH: And what is that moment like then sort of when you get that eventual team, you've made the Commonwealth Games, you're going to be representing Australia? I mean, does it make through all that everything you were just mentioning out there worth it a little bit extra when you kind of you qualified, you are representing Australia at a major international event?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah, I find this really funny because I was expecting this really big kind of like shock hit you moment when I made that team or when I first went into team camp or when I entered the stadium or when I stood at the top of the runway in round one of the competition, but I actually never had that moment. And I think a lot of it for me was I had prepared for so long to make that team and be part of it and throw my best at it that I think I prepared myself well. I kind of believe that I was meant to be there and that I'd earned my spot in that team. So, yeah, I never really had that shock moment, which I don't know, not to upset about. I know I've heard athletes in the past talk about having that moment. I think mine came for me more when I wore my Olympic blazer for the first time, because again, that was maybe that was where my goal, my big goal, my heart had always lied was making an Olympic team. And I always felt like the Commonwealth Games and the World Championships were always going to be really good stepping stones or progressions to help me get to that level.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which would have been a completely different story had you pursued netball, because I guess the Commonwealth Games alongside a netball World Championship is the pinnacle of netball, whereas obviously for track and field, you know, you'd rank Commonwealth Games, what, like a third or a fourth kind of thing sort of on the tier of, you know, global events. But and also, it's coming to your job, you've said at the end of school, like, I'm going to be a professional athlete. Yeah, I've made the Australian team. I mean, that's just like, oh, yeah, I got that promotion from Jenkins in the office. I was expecting that. And here we go. Let's keep moving forward.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah. And I feel like maybe that's a lot of my, my personality to some degree. I sort of I set myself these goals of like achieving these things. And when I do it, it's kind of just like, excellent. I've done that now. What's the next goal? I've sort of had to learn over the years to really take time to sit back and just sit with the fact that I've been able to achieve something that I set out to achieve. Because I'm always very quick to move on to the next one. Or what's the next thing ahead? I'm very hungry for excellence and the pursuit of excellence.
BEN WATERWORTH: And I'm imagining in a sport like Javelin, with any track or field event, there's kind of that barrier that you want to get to. I mean, is Javelin the 60 metres? Is that sort of getting to that throw of a 60 metres? And do you remember that first time that, boom, I've achieved it? I've cracked the 60 mark, and now this is going well.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Very much so, yes. The 60 metre barrier is definitely the first one. And then I think the 65 is the second one. The third one, I feel like is a little bit funny. I feel like it sits somewhere between like that 68 to 70 metre mark, because there are so few women that have hit that top end 60 metre range. But yeah, I very much remember the first time I threw over 60 metres, and I very much remember the time I threw 65 metres for the first time.
BEN WATERWORTH: Great. Which I mean, like, this is the thing I love about Javelin is that I don't think people realise how far that is to throw a stick. Like let's be honest, you are throwing a stick. But like that is a bloody long way. I mean, we're obsessed with the 100 metres at the Olympics. I mean, that's more than half that distance. That's insane. I mean, like it just it just must be such a proud moment to kind of crack that moment then the 65 and and just realise how freaking far that actually is.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah, how freaking far and it's really, really cool when you get to see it side on in a stadium. I think this is what again, this Javelin is just so fun to watch from so many different angles because as a thrower, I always love watching it from behind because you get to see a little bit more of what the athletes are doing and how they put the energy into the Javelin. And when you see it fly from behind, it's a totally different picture. When you see it fly from the side, as you say, it is so cool to then appreciate how far that distance actually is. So yeah, the amount of time that actually spends in the air is one of the best parts about this event is that I get to deliver it, but then I get to watch it fly and I get to watch it land. So the whole process is actually a lot longer and you get to enjoy it for a lot longer than I feel like some of the other events.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I guess that's true. I mean, any of the jumping events, you're experiencing the distance by landing, even with Hammer and Discus, it's kind of got the same thing there. But like, you've got sort of that that delivery and kind of everything and you kind of you're with it the whole way, which I can imagine like the adrenaline aspect of it, you know, what everybody loves about the field events is the clapping, let's get the crowd involved, all this stuff. You're obviously known for your clutch throws, which we'll obviously talk a little bit about. So it's kind of getting that aspect and you're watching it and you're seeing it land and it's just, yeah, all that.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah, very much. And this is, yeah, I love talking about jumping.
BEN WATERWORTH: Come on, come on, we know this.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: No, I think it's exactly that, like we have that moment where at the top of the runway, you have to be so composed, but so free with your mind to allow your body just to throw it. But then if you're someone like me who enjoys the crowd atmosphere or that little sting in your belly, when you've got just that like jolt of nervous energy, like those are all elements that kind of bring this road together that I really love about competing at the top. At the top level in this event. And then, as I said, like you have to put that throw together seamlessly without letting those external elements influence how you're going to deliver the throw and then trusting yourself with all the work and all the training and your body to just deliver it. And at the end of the day, throw the stick.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, throw the stick. How fast is the javelin going? Like if you're throwing that thing at the peak at an Olympic, what's the speed?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: There have been numbers thrown around, but off the top of my head, I can't remember. I know that we're somewhere between like running down the runway. Our speed hits like 20 metres per second, maybe.
BEN WATERWORTH: Right.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I don't even know.
BEN WATERWORTH: To put it into context, if you threw the javelin at the same point the 100 metres run, would the same bolt get to 60 metres before that javelin did?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: No, I think we'd be quicker.
BEN WATERWORTH: Right. There you go. So we'll use that. I'm quicker than the same bolt.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: The 60 metres, yes.
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. Exactly. You can say that. I would be the same bolt in 60 metres. You don't have to go into the technicalities of that, but hey, you can use that as well. So just to kind of put that out there.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Just to pump up my confidence a little bit more.
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. I always think people should use these a little bit more and kind of go along with that. Commonwealth Games 2014, you get the bronze, Gold Coast, Silver. So are we just calling this right now Birmingham, your gold medallist? Like this is already a lot closer. It kind of seems to be that progression, right, that we're moving up the ranks?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I think that's the only way it can go, right? There's nothing else to say.
BEN WATERWORTH: But what is it? You sort of talk about that, you know, kind of almost like this is just business as usual. I've made the team, I'm representing Australia. But when you sort of do leave your first international competition with a bronze medal, I mean, how do you kind of leave those games and feel like, is it a case of, wow, this is going pretty well? I've got that confidence. International competition behind you, which I'm sure is very different to competing on the national stage. I mean, kind of how did that all affect you moving forward?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah, I think it was a little bit of... There were pros and cons involved with it. I think having achieved that certainly showed that I was very capable and I definitely held my own in that standard of competition. So as I said, given my nature, I was sort of like, cool, so it's only up from here. Like it's a straight-line industry trajectory to the next championship, and I'm going to do better than that. So yeah, I think it was great in terms of coming back and feeling confident and wanting to keep improving. I think that was awesome. But a Commonwealth Games for me was a very different experience to my World Championships in 2015. Just the level of professionalism, the level of throwing that comes out of World Championships, the business-like temperament of those games is completely different. And that really was a whole new experience for me in 2015. And that's where I felt like I fell short a little bit. I sort of, I guess I expected it to feel a lot closer or more similar to the experience I had at Commonwealth Games. That wasn't the case. So I definitely, 2015 was a big learning experience for me.
BEN WATERWORTH: And how did that help then on the path to Rio? Did you kind of take more from that then in the qualification process? And did that help or sort of hinder where you thought you might be going into Rio?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I definitely thought that the World Championships experience was really helpful in the progression for the next two years. Actually, I just got a much better sense of what it was going to feel like to be in the mix and be amongst that. And as I said, I think, for World Championships, there's still an Olympics and Commonwealth Games, because those are multi-event games. There's big village life. There's lots of experiences to be had outside of the stadium itself. But at a World Championships, it's literally track and field. And that World Championships crown, I personally hold just as high as an Olympic gold medal in terms of what you're trying to achieve under the circumstances of those games. So I hold them on the same level. I think there's something in that. So the 2015 definitely gave me much needed experience and exposure to what to expect in future years.
BEN WATERWORTH: I always love hearing about that aspect, sort of you mentioning that the Village is a multi-sport sort of tournaments because you're right, like a World Championship for any sport is just that sport. You know, I mean, maybe if you're a swimmer, it can kind of be considered because you've got diving, you've got artistic, so it is a little bit that way. But athletics, you track or you field, right? But like it is, I guess, I imagine experiencing a village, experiencing that you're bumping shoulders with the swimmers, you're bumping with that sort of stuff. And we always like to find out about the Olympic sort of experiences when it comes to sort of, you know, village life. But you mentioned Commonwealth Games a bit more relaxed. I mean, did you find that sort of relaxed atmosphere now being two Olympics, two Commonwealth Games is sometimes more enjoyable that it kind of helps you compete a little bit at a Commonwealth Games that you're maybe not, I don't know, taking it. I don't want to say you're not taking it seriously, but you're not taking it as seriously as you would be at an Olympics, if that makes sense.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I, yeah, I do, I find it particularly hard in these multi-games scenarios because, yeah, I want to be there for the event, for my event, and very business like, but there really is, there's so much to experience outside of that. And in a non-COVID year as well, like you get to be a part of other sports, watch other sports, cheer on other teammates. So there really is, there is so much to enjoy about that, but I've, I've never really let myself experience that side of the games or I haven't yet because I've always gone in with such, again, a really like high goal for myself. And I know the best way for me to achieve that is to kind of stay within my own little bubble, stick to my routine as much as possible, make sure that I'm looking after my body, not doing too much outside of what I'd normally consider in my training week. And then it's the mental side of it and emotional side of it as well. If you kind of experiencing or exposing yourself to all these different parts, that can be very draining. So yeah, I tend to kind of hide away a little bit, stick to myself or Mike and I tend to just continue or try and keep as much as what would be considered normal in those games. So I don't regret it. I think I've had the success I have had because I have stuck to that plan. But yeah, I can't walk away with the stories that other athletes have about those Olympic or village experiences because I haven't necessarily had them myself.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do you at least allow yourself a five-minute moment at a closing ceremony when, say, Kylie Minogue's performing? Okay, Kate, this is worth it. Kylie Minogue's there. I can just five minutes. I can relax right now and party.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah. So, I mean, after my event, sure, I'm all about it, but I didn't get to do that at this Olympic Games. 2016 Rio, I was so disappointed by my result that I probably shut myself off a little bit to enjoying that. So, that came with its own kind of, yeah, I just wasn't in the mood, kind of to say. But from my 2014 and 2018 Comm Games experiences, I had a fantastic time with my teammates after I competed. So, yeah, I have those memories to hold on to, for sure.
BEN WATERWORTH: I want to talk about Rio. You touched on before about sort of not really having those, you know, big moments when you make the Australian team, but the Olympic blazer moment. I mean, just we always love to hear those moments of qualifying for an Olympics and everything along those lines. I mean, was it the moment when you got the blazer when you realised, shit, I'm an Olympian, this is my childhood dream? Or was it when you'd qualified? I mean, kind of that whole, I guess, experience around qualifying through to getting the blazer. I mean, that must have been a pretty amazing experience.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Definitely. And there were probably two moments for me where I think it really sort of sunk in that I was either in the process of or had achieved what I had set out to do, you know, eight years previously. So it was the night that we were awarded our official boarding passes to say that we've been selected on the team at our annual athletics awards nights after Nashville. So that was the first time that I felt like, wow, this is happening, or this is this has happened. I've achieved this goal or I'm about to. And then the second time was when we had our opening ceremony. We were just the small track and field team in our Florida training camp at that point in time. So we weren't even in the village yet, but we all got to dress up in our Olympic uniforms. And we had kind of our own opening ceremony. And that was really special for me. It is such an honour to put that blazer on. I feel like that's one of the proudest moments for me wearing that. And even to this day, every time I put it on, it's something really special. So yeah, that for me stands out as a pretty epic moment.
BEN WATERWORTH: Because as somebody who loves to collect pointless crap, and then I spend money, like I'm literally sitting here right now, my team is straight. It's modern pentathlon. I don't quite have javelin, unfortunately.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I'll sign one too.
BEN WATERWORTH: Thank you, thank you. Yes, yes. But like I could imagine those moments when you do get, and it's not just the blazer, like you're getting your uniform that you're gonna be competing in. And I believe you still get the swimwear, don't you? Like with the Olympic ring, everything. You're not a swimmer, but like you've got to train in the pool, right? So like you're getting basically a suitcase filled of Australian Olympic swag, which I mean, you never want to get rid of that, right? Like that's like in a special place that you're going to hang on to till the day you die, surely.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah, and I'm pretty sentimental about this. I really feel like each athlete that has qualified and represents the country with that uniform is something pretty special to them. And yeah, I don't ever want to get rid of it. I know it just most of the time just sits in the suitcase. But yeah, I definitely I got my World Championships singlet framed, actually, and I plan on doing the same with my Olympic singlet this year, because again, those competition singlets have so many stories attached to them, and they're definitely something I personally want to have around to remind myself of the journey that took to get there.
BEN WATERWORTH: And is it the same too with like the little competition bibs, like with your name on it, that you kind of got like a little folder or something, kind of with every single one of those somewhere as well?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah, early days, I probably like kept all my competition bibs. I think I've got a stack of them still at my parents' place, but it's probably just the major championship ones that I hold on to nowadays.
BEN WATERWORTH: You mentioned obviously you left Rio sort of not too happy in terms of how you go. I mean, what did you set yourself a target for? Was it making a final, winning a medal? And I mean, how hampered were you sort of with injury kind of going into Rio?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: So again, this is funny, reflecting back on where I was, how naive I was in my world of Javelin. But yeah, I'd set out to Rio to be at least in the fight or contention for a medal. It was definitely not meant to be that year. I suffered a stress fracture in my back. I was diagnosed in March, just in 2016. So a lot of my preparation for the Olympics that year was just about returning to the sport. And I just did not have enough training behind me to put myself in a position to throw far enough to make the final, let alone contend a medal in the final. So I don't think I ever stopped believing that it was possible. And this is a lesson I guess I've learned over the years, is that there's only so much that, you know, hoping things will come together works out. I think maybe once or twice, I got lucky in my career, when things hadn't lined up to say, okay, I can still achieve this. But I definitely don't want to go into a championship again, just hoping that things will come together. I really want to have the backing of my training and that element behind me without just this idea of like, oh, I'll just, you know, hope that it will come together. And that's a lot of what 2016 ended up being for me. I mentally just like kept that goal alive and kept that dream alive by just hoping that it would happen.
BEN WATERWORTH: But in terms of sort of reflecting on it now, can you sort of look back and think, well, I had this pretty nasty injury, what, four months out from an Olympics, and I'm still able to go and compete. I mean, you know, hindsight's 20-20, of course, but I mean, that's pretty amazing to be able to recover from that enough to still be able to compete in Olympic Games a couple of months later.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yes, and I've definitely, as I've matured, and as I said, had time to reflect on that. I think I've probably just been able to appreciate what I've put my body through and appreciate the recovery elements and the dedication it took to get to that final. So, yeah, absolutely. I think there was a lot. Maybe I didn't learn a lot from the competition itself that year, but I certainly learned a lot in terms of what I was able to achieve in terms of that commitment to chasing down goals, definitely. And as I said, like the fire and the desire to achieve that goal never burnt out even while I was injured. It almost just made me more dedicated to doing my rehab well and taking off every other box that I could possibly do to help me work towards that. So, and that still stands true today. I think if anything, it just solidified the fact that those are the things you need to do in order to achieve big things.
BEN WATERWORTH: It must have worked because obviously between Rio and then Tokyo, things start to go quite well. Tenth of the World Champs in 2017. Silver, as we mentioned at the Comm Games. And then a little improvement in Doha, a little gold medal that you did kind of walk away from, from the World Champs. I mean, you touched on before about sort of holding up that World Championship medal up there with anything and the Olympics. I mean, do you remember sort of going into that event similar to what it was, what we saw in Tokyo, you know, your last throw that you get the gold medal with? I mean, moments like that. Like, I mean, how can you put all of that experience into words from the going into it, this is what I want to achieve to literally walking out with the gold and doing what you no doubt have dreamt about for most of your javelin career?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: This is a really great question, because I was actually just talking to Mike about it last week. He asked me something similar, and I said, No, my experiences in Doha compared to Tokyo actually completely different. And I was a completely different athlete at both of those championships. And I think the big one for me was Doha. I had had a really awesome season leading into that games. I had hit PB after PB. I had so much confidence and self-belief in what I was capable of achieving. I had a minor, I had a shoulder niggle that, you know, I kind of just, it was there, and it was going to be there. So the confidence I had around everything else in my training just meant that that kind of just was part of the package that year. And on the day, just find a way to kind of push the pain aside, because I knew that I was capable of achieving something really awesome at that game. So that was the version I had in 2019, but in 2020, or 2021, sorry, I had this other version of me where I had no distance kind of backing me into this Olympics. I'm sure I had my experience from World Champs, and I think that helped to a degree because I sort of believed in the fact that I could stand up to the challenge and could produce something really special when it mattered most. So I certainly took that element and that experience with me. But in terms of how to trust my body, how to push pain aside and have all the confidence in the world in my technical model, I had none of those elements available to me. What I did have and what I think really shone brightly at Tokyo was the fact that I was so set on achieving this goal and it only ever comes around once every what should be four years. I remembered how devastated I was in Rio and not getting anywhere close to it. I sort of didn't want to let this opportunity pass me by. And I was so mentally ready for that competition. That is how I was able to perform the way I did. I was so present. I was so alive in what I wanted to achieve on that day. And I had this burning fire of this goal that I just wanted to reach full stretch and have a go at. And that was so different to Doha for me. So it's really cool to be able to talk about and reflect on these experiences, because I guess from an outsider looking in, it was kind of like, oh, a medal and a medal, but how I achieved those medals were actually really, really different.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just quickly on that, while you're mentioning that burning fire and everything that you've taken to Tokyo, on that final throw then in qualifying, is that literally like you put all that into a bottle and you've drunk it and gone, fuck it, this is everything I need to do, and I'm going to throw the shit out of this javelin and it clearly works.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I got caught in a really weird space in that qualifying round because I just had had a small niggle six weeks out, which meant that I couldn't load my foot very much. So I hadn't had much throwing, hadn't had much load, and I hadn't had competition. So I was kind of going in and again, very mentally ready for it. The most calm and collected I'd felt going into qualifying, knew what I had to do, knew what I knew what to expect, but got caught in this weird space of just making things look really like pretty, just kind of like, okay, we're just going to throw the javelin. I had forgotten about the reason like why I was there. Like you need this to qualify for the final. So after two pretty shit throws, kind of sitting in like 29th, which is worse than when I finished in Rio, I was like, not today. This is not happening today. I just sat down, kind of like held my head between my hands, and I was like, I'm not going out like this. It was just so, in that moment, just like, there's your path again. You know what you need to do. Sort your shit out. Get it done. And it was like that. It was just that like, I don't know, what do you call it? Like stubbornness that I wasn't going out. I was going to be in that final, and it was just about like, doesn't have to look pretty. It doesn't have to fly pretty, but you have to hit it hard, and you have to hit it with everything you've got, because I would be so disappointed in myself if I walked away from that, not making the final, but also regretting that I hadn't just like given it a crack. Like if I just hadn't left it all out there, I would have been more disappointed in that element than if I had had a go and it fell short. And I feel like, okay, well, that was literally all I could have done today. But yeah, I'm really happy that I was able to flick that switch because I definitely carried that over into the final two days later. And I sort of started where I left off in the qualifying. And that's, yeah, I guess that's where I want to be. I want to be free enough to just like take those big leaps, not just in major championships, but in every competition. And I guess I'm still working towards that to some degree. I think I hit that more often this year than I have in previous years, but it's still something I'm working on.
BEN WATERWORTH: There's another t-shirt idea in there for you as well. Sort your shit out, get it done. Just freaking love this sport, sort your shit out, get it done. You have so many people buying those.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: It just comes down to that. Sometimes you just put everything else aside. You know what you're there to do. Just go and get it done.
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. And also too, in qualifying, not only yourself for the final, but with Mackenzie and Katherine making it. I remember watching that, and that you had Dave Colbert and Bruce McEvaney trying to go through history books to see if Australia had ever qualified three athletes for a field final. I mean, when you've got freaking Bruce McEvaney scrambling the record books, you know you've achieved something special. He knows that shit off the top of his head. He doesn't need to do it. I mean, that must be pretty special, though, to have that notion that you've got basically a quarter of the final are Australians. I mean, pretty good chance for them. It could be a sweep. It could complete the podium there.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I remember people who'd watched that session that night saying they'd never seen so much green and gold on the track and field before, because I know we had a few of our distance runners competing that night as well. So it was like gold here, gold there, gold running around. And I was like, boom, we just made history. Three women in the final making the top eight. It's awesome. How awesome to be part of that, though. And so cool seeing other javelin throwers from other coaches and other parts of Australia come together and do that.
BEN WATERWORTH: You mentioned sort of taking that feeling from that final throw into the final. Obviously, it's a couple of days in between the qualifying to the final. How do you maintain that sort of, I guess, momentum or kind of feeling? Is it just limited distractions as you possibly can do, stick to your routine? I mean, do you have any sort of things that kind of you would do to really stay in that zone in between the qualifying and the final?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yes, the most important thing I've learned over the years, and we've really stuck to our guns in the past few major championships to make sure we do this really well and really thorough, is debriefing that qualifying session, making sure that we talk about whatever we need to talk about so that we can leave it, we can park it, pull out the one or two things that we know are going to help or be good for the final, and then it's just like, right, literally wipe your hands of it, that's done. And now we go into that same preparation that we would for any other javelin competition, and we work towards that. So yeah, it's a very similar routine. As I said, I do become a bit of a hermit in those days because I know what I need. I know what my body needs, and I know what I need mentally in order to be prepared to throw again. And the two days was longer than I've ever experienced before, and it probably felt like two of the longest days. But again, there is some comfort in having those routines set up because it's familiar, and that's what helps me feel most settled going into competition. So as I said, the main part is just that debrief and pulling out the few things that help us plan to be my best in the final.
BEN WATERWORTH: I always love learning about the psychological aspect of any sport from any guests we've got on the show. And how is that going into an Olympics as a reigning world champion that you've kind of got a target on your head that you maybe had never achieved before? Are there psychological things that you can kind of do to try and psych out your other opponents like, yeah, I'm the fucking world champion, you better watch out for me? Or is it a case of, shit, I don't want this on my head, I'm going to kind of go back? Can you use it to your advantage or is it more of a disadvantage?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I think I knew from the moment that I won my world title that that was always a possibility, but I really tried to embrace it. I almost like having that little bit of fear element around me. And I think, hopefully, I think I've kind of put a name about myself to say that, you know, don't rule me out until my final throw. And I really love that. I really like that I can stand up in that round six and have people wondering, can she still do something? Is it possible? So I want to maintain that. I think it's an awesome card to play. And, yeah, as I said, I really tried to embrace what having a world title meant, going into competitions, because I worked hard for that. And why not? I might do things like, yeah, own it. Absolutely own it.
BEN WATERWORTH: We talked to Matt Denny about sort of other psychological aspects. He talked a little bit about some mind games he liked to play with the competitors, a few little things he might say in passing as he walked past another one of his opponents. Is that something you've ever tried to do at all?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: That sounds like a very Matt Denny thing to do. Classic Mattie. I probably become very intense. You can almost probably see the intensity radiating off my body. And I think it comes across in a little bit in my facial expressions. I think there are a few comments after watching me in Tokyo about my resting bitch face and my game face. If you're ever doubting what I might be thinking in a final, just always look for the eyes and the mouth. You'll probably figure it out pretty quickly.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which one is Kelsey-Lee? Which one is she? Oh, there she is.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: The one that's probably like staring into your soul right now.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which also too, given the unique, you mentioned sort of you love that crowd aspect. Obviously, we know the limited crowds and no crowds and everything. But obviously, you're coached by your husband. So therefore, the one person you probably want to be there is there, but he's also helping you to that goal of a medal. I mean, kind of was it extra unique there in Tokyo, given that the family element you would want to have afterwards, isn't there, and kind of Mike's really it, and everything that kind of came around that moment when you did get the medal.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah, I've been super lucky for both World Champs and Olympics that Mike's been there to celebrate with me and gets to share in the moment as it happens. And I get to share that moment with him. It's super special. And I think given everything that we go through to achieve those, he has such a greater understanding and so much more depth in knowing what it takes to achieve those moments. So to be able to share them with him, he gets to celebrate as much as I do. And so he should. He's a big part of why I'm able to do what I do and the success I've had. So this year was especially important, I guess, having him there, because as you said, no crowds, no spectators, and no other family members. So I was one of the lucky ones that got to really share the Olympic experience with him.
BEN WATERWORTH: Obviously, you kind of mentioned through there, you know, that fear of she can do something on her final throw. You're obviously very well known for that sort of final throw aspect. But in the final itself, so your fourth throw would have been good enough for a bronze, but that final throw that ends up, what, five centimetres away from a silver, but it looked pretty darn good from everyone's point of view. I think everybody there was like, yeah, that's better than a bronze. But you mentioned that sort of moment, watching it, but that judging moment, that whole period where they've got to get this, you're like, oh, here we go. You know you got a medal, but at that point, you're like, fuck, what different colour, what's that moment like?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah, I think for me, with this time round, I obviously knew I'd have fallen short of the gold medal, but I was like, oh, I was like, have I done it again? Have I done it again? There was just this excitement as much as anything about, yes, I just threw my best on my sixth. Could I just scare everyone a little bit and be like, oh, she did it again. But at that point in time, I had secured the bronze, so it was a bonus if I managed to sneak that silver medal. And to come within, oh, is it four centimetres, five centimetres? Yes, it sounds like a lot on paper. And I think when you read the numbers, you're like, oh, that distance was clear. But when you look at it on a tape measure, it is nothing. It's absolutely nothing. So I always forget that about javelin. You sometimes see results that are like two, three centimetres, sometimes maybe like 30 centimetres, and you're like, that's heaps. Not really. It's so tiny.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm just looking for our video viewers. It's that much. So don't want to try and rub it in your face or anything. But I'm just saying to people who really kind of want to see that. That's not large at all, right? That's that's ridiculously small. But I mean, it is the same thing. Yeah, I mean, a sport of inches, sport of centimetres, millimetres, everything along those lines. But I mean, is it also a level of freedom that you mentioned? You know, you've got an Olympic medal at that point. It's not like a qualification where you're like, I've got to make this or I'm not making the final or in Doha. Like what I'm forced, I need to pull something out of my bank to do it. So like, is it more of a freedom level? Like, oh my God, I'm coming away with an Olympic medal. Fuck it, just throw everything on the line literally to go out there and get a different colour.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah, yes and no. I had never been in a position where I was actually kind of on a podium in my final round before, so never experienced that. But I suppose I still wasn't quite satisfied with the bronze at that point in time. It was more just the fact that it was like, you've got one more opportunity. Have a go, have a crack. Don't waste it being satisfied with the bronze. You literally get one more throw. Why not have a crack at trying to walk away with this gold medal here? As I said, this opportunity doesn't come around often enough to waste it. I was still very focused and very, very intense in that sixth round on that absolute goal of the gold medal. And I'm really glad that I was able to maintain that level of focus because it still got me an extra, I think, 50 centimetres in that final throw. So, yeah, I'm really happy with the way I competed in Tokyo. It's one of my best throw series I've ever had. And can't complain with a bronze medal at an Olympic Games.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I was going to say with that, I mean, you know, at the very beginning of this interview, we mentioned the famous line you say to Channel 7 afterwards. But I mean, that's the great thing about those moments, always that's just showing just how emotional and how overwhelmed and everything because you've dreamed of the Olympics your entire life. You've won a medal, which is something that even less people achieve in their lives. I mean, has it been something that you've been able to even still right now, you know, several months after the event, even just reflect and go, holy crap, like, and sort of pinch yourself more. I mean, is it does it hit you at any point that you are an Olympic medallist?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I've had a few moments, actually. And I think I was I was pretty hard on myself after winning, actually, winning the bronze, because I still had moments where I guess I still felt like I fell short on what I was able to achieve this year, like my distances weren't weren't great. I really struggled with some technical issues, so I wasn't at my best. And I still had moments where I was like, damn, I really missed that opportunity again to throw my best in Olympic Games. And then it would totally see saw. And I feel like, wow, given the circumstances of this year, I'm really, really super happy and super proud of what I was able to achieve. So it was it was a roller coaster for like a month after the games, just kind of like fighting, toing and froing a little bit, and I think once the dust settled a bit on the Olympics and the season and everything that happened, I've definitely had time to appreciate and reflect on this year. And yeah, less about this like judgemental moment where I was like, you didn't do it and more about like, yeah, cool, you freaking won an Olympic medal.
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly, exactly. I mean, it's something just that you're always from now on when you enter a room, it's going to be like, but but but but Kelsey-Lee Barber Olympic medallist, world champion, you know, like it's kind of it never, it never leaves you. I have to ask, I always ask this to all our guests who have won medals. What do you do with the medal? Like, have you got a place for it yet? Is it something that you kind of working out? I mean, have you, I mean, you're not wearing it now, but I mean, you generally take it off like an hour a day to breathe or you just wearing it all the time.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: So, yeah, I do actually have my medals on display in my house. Right. As I said, there's something I'm really proud of. And if nothing else, actually motivate me in my training, especially on the days that are maybe a little bit harder. I'm feeling a little bit sore. I'm not feeling super motivated. They are definitely a reminder as to one of the reasons why I love this sport and what I'm working towards. So, yeah, I like to have them out. They're also people like to see them, and I like sharing them like they won their beautiful medals. They're really, really cool to hold. So, yeah, when people ask, I'm more than happy to share that.
BEN WATERWORTH: I just want to point out that I've never remotely gotten close to an Olympics ever. Like, I mean, I'm still holding out hope. I mean, Andrew Hoy was 62. So like, I've still got time. But I rather than spending a large portion of my life being athletically gifted, I actually just spent $20 and went to Wish and got myself a gold. So if you want a gold, just to show it off, happy to hook you up.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Hey, you've got the legit ribbon there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Right? They put some effort into it on Wish for once. It wasn't one of these ones where you end up getting to some sort of crappy thing instead. But I'm actually, fun story, I think I'm about a 12-time Olympic gold medallist with my various other collections. So if you want to see my Nagano 98 gold medal for winning the biathlon, I'm happy to share that with you too.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yes, very gifted. You can take the photos.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, exactly, exactly. I mean, on top of everything, though, with that, like, the thing that fascinates me with Javelin in Australia is that you were only our second ever medallist in the history of the Olympics, not even women, men and women. You know, Louise back in Atlanta obviously got silver and the world championship gold. You're our first ever world champion in the sport of Javelin. I mean, do those things kind of mean a lot to you? And then do you also hope that you can take that and sort of use it towards the future generation that say, by Brisbane, that when you're winning gold in Brisbane, you've got a silver medallist and a bronze medallist behind you. You know, we are sweeping the podium in, you know, a decade's time in Brisbane.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: It does actually mean a lot to me. And again, I think in those moments where I'm really hard and really like, judgemental on my performances as an athlete, to sit back and say like, I was the ninth Australian ever to win a world championship. I'm the second Australian ever to win a javelin medal at an Olympics. Those are really high achievements. And I suppose they're the ones that I maybe hold on to and kind of recognise a little bit because, you know, I said at the start of the interview, I set my standards exceptionally high and they haven't always meant that, you know, they've actually meant things have made myself harder for myself at times because I do set those standards so high. But I think it means that I'm very quick to judge myself harshly or always feel like I could do something better. But also means that I walked into this sport and I still hope to in the next few years keep striving to achieve these goals. But I want to walk away as one of the best ever. And I, yeah, I feel this passion in that there's something exciting about challenging myself to that extent. And I've still got a few more years to continue doing that. And that's, I find that really exciting. And I look forward to that. That's what gets me up every day, is to keep pushing those barriers. And yeah, love to walk away from the sport feeling as though like I can, I can say I was one of the best javelin throwers ever.
BEN WATERWORTH: I really don't think we've had a guest on this show that has been as passionate about their sport as you. I'm just trying to, I'm trying to think back and like, I love this, like I love it when anybody's passionate about their sport, but the fact that, again, I mean, we started this off with you freaking love this sport, like, I mean, this is just like, yeah. I mean, I remember as a boy, maybe picking up a stick and throwing it, going, that was kind of fun, but maybe I'm just going to go back inside and play with my cars. I don't know, but like you freaking love throwing sticks. I love this.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I live for this event. Like, there are moments just even talking about it. Like I get teary thinking about it. I get goosebumps talking about it. But yeah, I'm really excited that I've still got a number of years left to continue doing this, because there is nothing else I'd want to do right now. I still love the element of travelling and being on the road as part of the sport and the circuit. And most of all, I love the world. I love the championship meets. I love world championships and I love the Olympics. They, as I said, there's just a sense of professional, expert, being around other athletes who are trying to achieve the same thing. That gets me very excited each time I'm there.
BEN WATERWORTH: We're going to close out with a series of exciting fun questions in just a moment. Before I do, just a couple of quick things. The one question that you I'm sure have been asked so many times, you're sick of answering it, but I'm going to ask it to you anyway, because it would be my job to do it. But Paris 2024, I'm assuming you love this sport so much, you've basically already got your tickets booked, you already got your Eiffel Tower, you know, restaurant seats reserved and everything for 2024, right?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I'm there. I am there. As long as my body is healthy, I am there.
BEN WATERWORTH: And I mean, mentioning our chat with Matt, like, Matt very much was like, I'm going to be a five time Olympian and he's going to end his career in Brisbane. How is that kind of with that, that, you know, caveat there that, you know, at some point very soon in basically 10 years, we're going to have a home Olympics. Can that be something that is achievable for yourself? Do you think like is, is it something that if you just keep the body in shape and kind of keep pushing forward that that really would be a great goal to kind of end an Olympic career at a home Olympics?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: To be totally honest, there are women who are now still competing 39, 40, 41, I think maybe even 42. Like it's physically very capable of doing it if you can keep your body healthy. It's I think the big one and for female athletes, it's I want to start a family eventually. And that's going to play into how long my career goes for. I'm not to say that I'll just sort of say, cool, I'm done, this is it. I don't want to be a jab and throw anymore. I think I'll probably be more inclined to say like, cool, I'd really like to start a family and if I can, I'll come back to throwing and see where I go from there. So yeah, there's kind of a lot of things to consider before we start talking beyond 2024. But the next three years are definite for me. If I don't end up in, well, it's probably unlikely I'll be in Brisbane competing, but I'd like to be there in some capacity, whether it's still part of athletics as a coach or a support coach or a manager or something, I still want to be part of this sport for many years to come.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was going to quickly say, no disrespect to our American listeners, but you can skip LA, get the gold in Paris, start the family, have some years off and then maybe 2028, 2029, start working. Peak to 2032, right?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: You know, like, I can't tell you how exciting it would be to compete on home soil at Olympic Games. I, that would be one of the goals in life.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's a journey to that the Olympic goal started by arriving in Australia, seeing Sydney, what a story, you know, like it bookends itself.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: It really does.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, it really, really does. And I mean, on that too, sort of, I mentioned Birmingham, but like, obviously the common games are what, like a week or two after the World Championships in Oregon. Like, I mean, how do you balance it? Like, is it something that you go, okay, well, I can do this and do that. Do you take precedence over the World Championships over comm games, or you still kind of working that out?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: No, next year's, well, World Championships obviously got a title to defend, but I very much want to get that gold at comm games as well. So two very high-priority events, we know what the schedule is going to look like, so we make it work.
BEN WATERWORTH: It makes it work. As I said, bronze in Glasgow, silver in the Gold Coast, gold in Birmingham. It makes sense. It's kind of that buildup. And one thing that this comes from our co-host, Jarrod, who couldn't be with us on the show today. I remember during our Tokyo coverage when, I'll admit, I may have accidentally forgotten all of our javelin throwers in the final. I was trying to remember who each of you were, so I will hold my hand up and apologise for that. But when we were working that out, Jarrod's first thing was like, which is the one who is in that ad throwing against her brother? So it is you, of course. Now, when I look this ad up and sort of watch it again and everything, the one thing I love when you type it into Google is, is Greg really Kelsey-Lee's brother? So can you clarify this?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: No, I do not have a brother named Greg.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, ruined.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: But it was so much fun, and I had so much fun with how that ad played out and everything involved with it. Like, awesome, awesome to be a part of. And I had so much fun with it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do you get shit tons of free beef?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: No, that was just an ad for, specifically for the Olympic campaign because they're a sponsor of the team. So I was the very lucky athlete to be asked to be part of that.
BEN WATERWORTH: They're not just backing up a couple of cows on your front lawn, like going, well done for the beef and extra one for your bronze in Tokyo.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: That was the way for too many months to enjoy it anyway.
BEN WATERWORTH: I did kind of want to come and do this going, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg. But no, that would be cliche now, wouldn't it? We couldn't do that. Cliche, silly things on this show.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Why not ride the wave? It was great fun.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do people at any of your teammates chant that in the crowd? Like when you go in there for your last row, Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: No, it didn't come up in the team. There's always just an, you know, like an Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. That always gets a good run.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I'm telling you now, when I'm in that crowd at the Gabba in 2032, I'm going to be the one. Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg. As I said, we close off with a series of kind of fun, silly, random questions. Now, these are based on a questionnaire that Team Canada gave their athletes ahead of Rio and Pyeongchang. And I'm always excited when I can use a questionnaire filled out by somebody from the same sport. And I found someone and somebody who, by looking into this, you've competed against multiple times, beaten her a couple of Commonwealth Games, Liz Gleedle. Now, now, are you friends with Liz? Like, do you sort of, you know, hang out with her afterwards, throw some sticks together with some beers? Or is she just kind of like, nah, she's that Canadian enemy, I've got to beat her.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: No, no, actually, Liz has been one of the girls that has been on the Toys Me since the very beginning. So we have quite quite a good friendship. And so is the one to kind of look out for when we meet up every year.
BEN WATERWORTH: I will compare some of her answers. Now, as I always say, there's an optional drawing element, because this was a handwritten questionnaire. So if you feel the urge, we've had a couple of bobsledders do this before. So you could be the first summer athlete to do this. So straight away, Liz here has drawn a picture of herself. She's drawn what looks like it was almost like a cave painting of sort of somebody with an arrow. Yep. And she's written, that's the best I got. Haha. So, hey, that kind of works. All right. Your favourite ever Olympic moment is?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: That Channel 7 interview. I freaking love this one.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes. Oh, good answer.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Wow.
BEN WATERWORTH: I feel like I need to open this interview with that, right? We'll play the clip. Liz's answer was Simon Whitfield winning his gold. That was Sydney. I remember that. That was the first of a triathlon. I remember that one. If you could choose any Olympic host city, where would it be?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I'd love to go back to London. I'm sad I missed that Olympics. I think that would be wonderful.
BEN WATERWORTH: She's answered Rome. So you're both in the European mindset there. In your spare time, what do you most like to do?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Cooking.
BEN WATERWORTH: Cooking. Hey, you're with Liz. She likes to cook as well. Do you have a special dish that you sort of go to?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I always enjoy more Thai-flavoured dishes. That's probably like lean towards those sorts of elements.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nice.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah, anything with a bit of spice in it.
BEN WATERWORTH: You know who's house to go to if we want some good Thai food all of a sudden. The weirdest instruction, and this is going to be extra funny, I feel, given that your coach is your husband, the weirdest instruction a coach has ever given you?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Oh, um, oh no.
BEN WATERWORTH: All of them are weird.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Oh no, the weirdest instruction, I feel like it's going to have something to do with like the way I move my feet or something. Nothing, nothing comes to mind though. Oh, you know what he has said to me? It's just like, just fucking throw the thing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. Oh, that's what I've been doing wrong. Ah, shit.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: That's what I'm supposed to be doing.
BEN WATERWORTH: It reminds me of like when I used to watch football with my grandmother and you'd be watching it and she'd go, just kick it, just kick it. I'm like, I think that's what they're doing, Nan, but hey, we'll pass on the message. We'll try and get there.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Oh, I forgot that's why I'm here. That's what I'm supposed to be doing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. Your favourite workout is?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Oh, throwing, definitely. Outside of throwing, it'd have to be like my big, big gym days with an Olympic lift involved in it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Great. What is an Olympic lift? To me, an Olympic lift is lifting something that's like five kilos, as you can tell by these guns.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I'm talking like a snatch movement or a heavy back squat or something like that.
BEN WATERWORTH: I've asked this a few times, but when you're in the Olympic village and you're in the gym, do you sometimes play like guess the athlete, like guess what sport they're from?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Oh, all the time.
BEN WATERWORTH: There's some that you just look at and you have like, I have no fucking clue what that person does.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah. Oh, it comes up occasionally. And then sometimes you can, from 50 metres away, pick the athlete based off their physique or sometimes how they walk as well. It's quite fun.
BEN WATERWORTH: Guess the sport. Yep. That's a fun game. I think that really people should play. If you could have lunch with any one person, who would it to be?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: It would probably have to be like a chef. So I'd either say like Jamie Oliver or Donna Hay.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes. But would you like, because they'd be in the kitchen cooking. So like you couldn't really cook.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I'm not cooking.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, you can't really talk to them though, until they sit down, right? Like, and then.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Oh, no. Like I would be in amongst it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Like you'd be in the kitchen with them.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: And then we can both sit down and enjoy the meal.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, that's clever. So not only are you then getting good food, you get good conversation. So I like this. I like this.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Teaching me about flavours and textures and yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. Your favourite sandwich is?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I am, do enjoy a Reuben.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, yes.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: They're good.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: That doesn't get answered much, but no. I'm a ball for that. I like it. Now the next drawing one, if you want to draw a picture of a Canadian animal, we can make that Australian animal. And Liz has drawn an albino bear in a snowstorm, so she's left it blank.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Left it blank.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, albino beaver. I was going to say, isn't an albino bear a polar bear, but it's actually beaver. So I just apparently can't read. If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I think I'd always go back to flying. I think I'd like to experience that.
BEN WATERWORTH: That would be pretty cool. That's a good point.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: It suits my vent as well, doesn't it? Watching the javelin fly. I'd like to have a sense of how that feels.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, you could just literally recreate. What's it like? You talk to your javelin. What's this like? On that, when we had Eleanor Patterson on, we talked like, do you talk to the bar? Like, I want to jump over the bar. Do you ever talk to your javelin and be like, come on, you little shit, go through the air?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: You are not the first person to ask me this, and I had never even considered that this was a thing. But no, I do not talk to my javelins.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, come on, you miss it out. Like, I'm sure you can make friends with it. Yeah, give it a name. You can call it Ben. Call it Ben for Paris.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Just give it a little nudge to say like, come on, let's get this one.
BEN WATERWORTH: Let's do it, let's do it. Yeah, exactly. That works that way. The best candy in the world is?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Oh, no. Oh, no. I am a fan of like sour worms. Yeah, like any of those like jelly lollies, they have to be pretty high on the list.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, pretty high up there. I'm just seeing here that Liz is saying, blue live wire, weirdly plastic, but delicious. Don't know what that is.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I'm not sure what that is.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I'm sure of that one. As a kid, your favourite sports team was?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Oh, I definitely followed the Brumbies in Rugby Union. Still do today. And they're probably the team I remember following from an early age.
BEN WATERWORTH: And do you kind of feel weird when it comes to a World Cup? Are you just purely Wallabies, or do you kind of have to go, oh, Springboks?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Aussie all the way, no. Green and gold, throw it through.
BEN WATERWORTH: Clarifying there, correct answer. All right. Your favourite sports movie is?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Oh, that's cool runnings count.
BEN WATERWORTH: Of course it counts. It should be the standard answer. Like, I mean, you know, absolutely. 100%. And I always ask this when there's not an obvious one that I can think of. Is there a Javelin movie that you know of, or are they like documentaries maybe on some Javelins or on Netflix?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Definitely, there are docos and probably docos based around the Olympics, but maybe not Javelin specific.
BEN WATERWORTH: We'll make it happen. The Kelsey-Lee Barber story coming soon to stan in 2025 or, you know, Channel 7, sorry, I'm bored of it.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: You're going to have the whole story.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, yeah, exactly. What would that be? Like three-time gold medallist, four-time Olympic, you know, ten-time world champion kind of works that way. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Somewhere in Switzerland.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ah, OK. That was just like the scenery, like the neutrality, like the chocolates, the cheese.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: All of those things. It's a combination of like the air, the chocolate, the landscape. Yeah, it's one of my favourite places to visit and compete in every year.
BEN WATERWORTH: And what's the Javelin scene like in Switzerland? Is there, you know, a strong Javelin history in Switzerland that you know of?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Not specifically Javelin, but the Swiss love athletics, and they are some of the best places to compete just because the crowd gets so involved, and you feel so loved even though they might not know who you are specifically. It's kind of just like get in amongst it and appreciate athletics and appreciate the athleticism of these athletes and what they're doing. It's awesome. Zurich Diamond League meet is one of my favourites all time.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hello to all our Swiss listeners listening to the show today. I love this question. When you were little, what was one thing you always thought?
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Oh, I don't even know how to answer this question.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's deep. I'll tell you. So Liz says, my dad played for the Vancouver Canucks, didn't realise it was a real team. Well, I still doubt that. There is no offence about Canucks.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I would need some time to think about that one.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, give some homework for you. You can answer that before you perish.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: That's a deep question.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's like going back, far out. The best answer I think we ever got to that was, I'm hungry, because I was always hungry as a kid. So the last one.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Maybe mine would have been like, oh, how did I get that scratch? Did I hurt myself again?
BEN WATERWORTH: The last one, this is one that you've always either got or I feel you don't. That is, your favourite joke to tell is.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: No, I've got nothing else to say.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I'm the worst at remembering those things.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, Liz is inappropriate one-liners at the dinner table. So is that common when you're around Liz? She's always like dropping inappropriate things.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: I enjoy listening to them, and I'll very much be that person like laugh crying in the corner, but I'm not one to retell them.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right. Good to know. Before we let you go, anywhere that people right now listening or watching can follow you, social media. You've got a great website if you want to plug that as well. I mean, feel free to plug whatever you like.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah. It's pretty cool. Over the last couple months, I've worked pretty hard to keep everything nice and organised. So everything's at Kelsey-Lee Barber now. So I'm on Instagram, Facebook, and my new website, which only went live a couple of weeks ago. It's all Kelsey-Lee Barber, which is awesome. I'm me as myself, and you get to follow my journey.
BEN WATERWORTH: I tell you now, it's rare actually I find that people just have a website now. It's kind of very social media driven. But when it's all there, it makes my job easier. I don't have to rely on Wikipedia. But it also, yeah, I mean, it's very well put together. It's great. And yeah, I thank your website people for putting it together.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Yeah, my team, Pat and managers at Jam did an awesome job putting that together. And yeah, if you haven't had a look yet, certainly check it out.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is the BFAD on here? I don't see the BFAD. Where's the BFAD? Come on.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: It's on my social media, if you haven't yet seen that, it is a good laugh. And it's on my Instagram to have a look through there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, Kelsey-Lee, it's been a pleasure to chat with you today, to learn more about your journey, learn that Greg, sadly not your brother, and learn that this t-shirt business is going to be booming, but we'll be cheering you on for both Oregon and of course, Birmingham for 2022, then 2024, 2028, 2032, bugger it, 2036. You'll be there still too, but we really do very much appreciate your time on Off The Podium with us today.
KELSEY-LEE BARBER: Thank you so much. It's been really fun. I've really enjoyed everything.
BEN WATERWORTH: And a massive, massive thanks to Kelsey-Lee there for her time here on the show. Such a fun, fun chat. And I will just say, actually too, that if you want to see the video of this chat, you can now. We are on YouTube. I think we mentioned a little bit of it during the Olympics in Beijing. So you can head to YouTube, search Off The Podium, and you can see the video. If you want to see my face and you want to see Kelsey-Lee's face during this chat, it is there available for you to see. So there you go. And yeah, a lot of fun learning a lot about Javelin and everything else in between. And there's a few T-shirts that I might be putting on my list ready to buy at some point. But we've got some great stuff coming your way here on Off The Podium, of course, as we know, recovered from Beijing. So we'll be looking at bringing you some more athlete interviews, potentially from Beijing athletes, also some summer ones, mixing it up a little bit. Clearly, we've been very, very busy, essentially, between Tokyo and Beijing, with so many episodes in the lead up to both Beijing and, I guess, after Tokyo. So we won't be quite as frequent as we have been probably in the last six or so months. We'll be slowing down slightly to maybe an episode a week or even an episode a month, just to take a bit of a breather. But when we do have interviews and other episodes, you will see them. We're not going to try and take a 12-month gap. I think we had one point there between the Gold Coast Games in 2018 all the way through to when Tokyo was postponed. And of course, as you heard us talk about during the Beijing coverage, we'll be doing an episode on the Paralympics for Beijing. And later this year, of course, we will be doing another Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games episode. What that will look like, we're not too sure. Whether or not we'll do what we did back in Gold Coast, where we had multiple episodes, or maybe we'll just do a rap episode. We'll be working that out, of course, as we go along. If you want to follow all these episodes and stay up to date with everything to do with Off The Podium, social media, or on Instagram, or on Twitter, or on Facebook, and of course, subscribe to the podcast. They're all good podcasts. Find, found, one of those. Search for Off The Podium, and you'll be able to subscribe. Leave us writing feedback. We'd love to hear what you think of the show. Big thanks again to Kelsey-Lee Barber for her time on the show, and to her management as well, I should say, for arranging that interview. Until we next speak again, my name is Ben. Big shout out to Jason Momoa, as always, and remember, go left.
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