Kelsey-Lee Barber

Kelsey-Lee Barber has a reputation for being a clutch thrower and performing when it counts.

In a few major competitions between 2018 and 2021, she launched the javelin in the last round to her best performance of the competition, elevating her result.

Kelsey-Lee arrived in Australia during the Sydney Olympics and lived in Corryong in Victoria where her uncle and aunt owned a dairy farm. She competed in athletics at the school carnival and was successful in progressing in the discus through the zone and regional carnivals.

After moving from Corryong to Canberra in 2007, she took athletics more seriously, started training with a coach, and the next year won the javelin at the Pacific School Games in Canberra.

She recalled this being a trigger to wanting the pursue the sport at the highest level – the Olympics.

After competing at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 World Championships, she made her Olympic debut in Rio in 2016 where she competed in the qualifying rounds of the javelin throw.

She enjoyed success due to some last round exploits at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, where she moved from third to second, and in Doha at the 2019 world championships, she promoted herself from fourth to world champion. 

Her 2019 season was huge. She had raised her performance to a new level when in June and July she had a massive breakthrough.

After starting the year with a best mark of 64.57m, she recorded fourth throws over 65 metres in four weeks including 67.70m in Luzern, which moved her to number two in the world for the year, number two Australian all-time and number 12 in history. In Doha she threw 66.56m to claim the world title.

Like for so many athletes, 2020 was a challenging year for Barber. In January her former hometown of Corryong was badly effected by the early January bush fires in Australia.

Over 400 homes were lost in the East Gippsland region, but fortunately her uncle and aunt’s dairy farm survived. Then making a late summer start to her competition program due to a shoulder injury, Barber was days away from recommencing competition in March 2020 when Australia moved into lockdown COVID-19.

As coronavirus isolation effected the world, in late April Barber led an Australian Institute of Sport Mental Health program to “check in with your coach”.

Selected for her second Games, the Tokyo Olympics, her campaign looked over after two throws in the qualifying round, but she rallied with a big effort in round three and progressed to the final where she won bronze – Australia’s second Olympic medal in the event.

At the World Championships in 2022, she was on song from the first round, reaching 62.67m, then 66.91m in round three to take gold and defend her world crown. She became the first athlete to ever defend this title and just the third Australian to defend a global meet title (Worlds or Olympics), following Cathy Freeman in 1999 (World 400m) and Shirley Strickland in 1956 (Olympic 80m hurdles).

Two weeks later at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, on her last effort Kelsey-Lee was too good, throwing 64.43m and taking gold by just 16cm as Australia went 1-2 in the event.

In 2023, Kelsey-Lee Barber snuck into the World Championships final in 12th (last) place, joining teammates Kathryn Mitchell and Mackenzie Little. In the final, at her fifth world championship, she placed seventh with a throw of 61.19m. But shortly after announced she was closing her season due to suffering a small calf tear in round six in Budapest.

She competed in the two major domestic competitions in 2024, Melbourne (7th 54.59m) and Nationals (3rd 55.13m). In June Kelsey posted about her ongoing battle to get to the Paris Olympics. She has been battling an elbow issue.