Kelsey-Lee Barber

Olympic bronze medallist, two-time world champion and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Kelsey-Lee Barber lives and breathes javelin. Her biggest supporter, her husband, is also her coach. After hunting down medals to now being the hunted, the 32-year-old has been hard at work behind the scenes in the lead up to Paris 2024.

About Kelsey-Lee Barber

• Kelsey-Lee Barber always knew she wanted to be an Olympian. But it wasn’t until she was 17-years-old when she first started training seriously in javelin.

  “There’s this almost intimate part of connecting with the javelin to make it fly,” says the athletics star.

  Only five years after starting in the sport, Barber blew away her competition on her international debut. She won a bronze medal at her first Commonwealth Games at Glasgow in 2014 with a throw of 62.95 metres.

  Not content with a bronze medal, Barber went one better at her next Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018. She collected a silver medal with a throw of 63.89 metres.

  She then rounded out a successful year, marrying her coach, Mike Barber.

  “Our partnership is a really wonderful thing. I think I can be super grateful for the fact that the sport has led me to my husband! He knows what to say and how to say it and how to read my body language to get the best out of me. But also, away from the track we get to enjoy a wonderful life together.”

  Barber is the first to admit her husband and coach is a key part of her success story along with the tight-knit support team at the QAS.

  “Our team is very tight and the relationships we’ve built are extremely strong,” says Barber's strength and conditioning coach Patrick Castelli.

  “We do have a lot of fun in training and at competitions which certainly makes the job so much more enjoyable,” says Castelli.

• That synergy has translated into some of Barber’s best results. In 2019 she became a world champion in Doha. In 2020 she won her first Olympic medal taking home Bronze in Tokyo. In 2022 she became a two-time world champion in Oregon. And at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, she rounded out her medal collection with gold.

  “Kelsey-Lee is driven by goals like being a world champion and an Olympic champion. She’s always enjoyed the challenge of seeing what her body is capable of in pursuit of throwing the javelin far,” says Castelli.

  Despite Kelsey-Lee Barber making that challenge look effortless, her strength and conditioning coach says the reality is far from it. Mike, Kelsey’s coach has explained the throw as a relaxed explosion. There is a degree of raw strength required to handle the force as well as a suppleness to direct that force with elastic energy.

  “I spend a lot of time trying to get people stronger. But with Kelsey-Lee it’s much more nuanced. One of the biggest challenges is managing her body and how it responds to throwing and training,” says Castelli.

  For Barber, medals aren’t the only things she is collecting on her competitive javelin journey.

  “That is what’s so wonderful about the people that you meet and the people who you take on this journey with you and become part of this team. These are people who will be part of my life forever,” says Barber.