KEY POINTS:
Barbara Kendall isn't done yet. Well, she might be having physio for a calf muscle injury sustained dancing at last night's party to celebrate Tom Ashley's gold medal but don't try to tell her she's near retirement.
Some reports out of Qingdao have suggested Kendall's career on the
water is over. Nuh-uh. She's talking London 2012.
"I'm going to take a year or two off," Kendall said. "I'm going to join the real world for a while. I'll definitely be laying low for a while - but only for a couple of years. I will stay strong and it will only take 18 months to get back up to speed and get ready for London. And I'll only be 44 or 45." She turns 41 on Saturday.
Who'd doubt her? Kendall has done just about everything on a sailboard, and then some. If she didn't threaten the medals in this regatta, it's not because she has lost anything except, perhaps a bit of age when you see her near the much younger women in the RS:X boardsailing class; and less patience with light-air venues like Qingdao (It's not skill here, it's a physical test. It's a pump-a-thon).
But giving away age and battling adversity is nothing new to the sunny Kendall, who would win the gold medal at every regatta for the person with the bounciest personality.
She and brother Bruce are a dynasty in New Zealand boardsailing - he with a bronze and gold from the 1984 Los Angeles and 1988 Seoul Olympics respectively; she with the full set - a gold from Barcelona in 1992, a silver in Atlanta in 1996 and a bronze in Sydney in 2000, not to mention a fifth in Athens 2004 and a sixth here.
That might seem like a downward spiral but Kendall is still bullish.
"There might even be some wind in London," she laughs. The 2012 regatta is to be held in Weymouth, home of British gold medallist in the Yngling class, Sarah Ayton, and her fiancé Nick Dempsey who finished fourth to Ashley in Qingdao.
But it's the real world she is focusing on in the meantime. She is interested in doing more athlete mentoring - and it's difficult to think of anyone better suited to the job.
"Well, I've had a lot of experience," laughs the only woman to attend five Olympic Games for New Zealand.
She is still doing her work in schools - a part-time function she has performed for Sparc since 1997, turning schoolkids onto sport and the need to work hard to achieve results.
Kendall is also keen to get back to being a mother as daughters Amy, 3, and Samantha, 7, haven't seen much of their mum lately. She often takes the family abroad to various regattas but, because of security and accreditation, this Olympics was just too hard. It's been four weeks apart this time, too long.
As Kendall didn't get voted back onto the IOC Athletes Commission, which gives athletes a voice at the top table, she will drop off the board of the New Zealand Olympic Committee unless they offer her a guest spot.
She has had full IOC voting rights but came up against some heavyweight contenders for the athletes commission and lost out in the vote.
It's a shame and the NZOC could do a lot worse than keeping Kendall on the board.
