© Stade de France ®
Macary, Zublena et Regembal
Costantini - Architects
ADAGP - Paris - 2002
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COMPETITION  EVENTS |
 BARBER BACK ON TRACK (AND FIELD)
Paris 2003 Saint-Denis
On 8 June, Eunice Barber set the highest points total in the world this year in the Arles heptathlon. That season’s best marked the end of two years of pain and anguish for the French all-round athlete before the World Championships in Athletics in Paris.
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The last time TV viewers caught sight of Eunice Barber she was being led from the field in floods of tears at the 2001 Edmonton World Championships. The reigning world champion had failed to record a throw in the shot put, and that meant she had just blown a golden chance of retaining her world title. Her zero-pointer also led to a dispute with the French Athletics Federation, who accused her of professional negligence and questioned her decision to follow the example of so many French athletes and train in the US. Physically and psychologically drained by the whole experience, Barber did not complete another heptathlon until her recent triumphant return in Arles.
Constant progress
Born in Sierra Leone in 1974, Eunice was first spotted as a promising teenager by an attaché at the French Embassy in Freetown and invited to come to France and train at the National Sports and Physical Education Institute in Reims. She finally became a French citizen in February 1999 and within six months had celebrated her new nationality in style. She began by breaking the French long jump record with a leap of 7m01 in Charléty and then broke another French record at the World Championships in Seville in 1999, this time at the heptathlon on her way to the gold medal. The neo-French athlete headed into Olympic year in high spirits, and was selected to compete in both the long jump and heptathlon in Sydney.
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A series of niggling injuries hampered her preparations though, and she was forced to throw in the towel after just one long jump. That disappointment was to be followed by the Edmonton “tragedy” and a sciatic nerve injury that kept her out of top-flight competition for the 2002 season.
Time for a change
Eunice Barber is not the type to give up easily. She is driven by a burning desire, an entrenched work ethic, and an enviable willingness to cross the pain barrier time and again. She is also unafraid to shake things up when she feels the need for a new challenge. She has changed coach no less than six times in her career, most recently calling on the services of Bob Kersee (the husband of heptathlon world record holder Jackie Joyner-Kersee). Of her partnership with Kersee, she says “with him, I work on every aspect of the discipline, and on the frame of mind you need to practice this sport.” Since her encouraging performance in Arles, she has stayed in France under the watchful eye of former mentor Claude Monot. Eunice appreciates Monot’s calmness, and recently confided to French newspaper L’Equipe that “ it’s great to be able to count on two guys who complement each other so well. I listen to them and adapt”.
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A date with destiny at the Stade de France®?
Barber can now legitimately harbour hopes of heptathlon gold in Paris Saint-Denis this summer. Her leap of 6m80 in Arles qualified her for the long jump too, but she has her sights firmly set on the seven-event women’s version of the decathlon. Bob Kersee recognises his job is to “take Eunice over 7,000 points… but not until she wins her world title back”. The World Championships in Athletics could constitute a form of redemption for the fallen star then, but the heptathlon is a notoriously booby-trapped event. Something can always go wrong, be it physically, technically or tactically, but anyone who saw her in Arles will tell you the old Eunice Barber is back - as determined as ever, and with a smile on her face. That spells danger for her fellow competitors, because if Barber starts having fun in the Parisian sun this summer, she could well prove unstoppable.
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