Against the Wind

Three-time world champion windsurfer Barbara Kendall is off to Beijing and her fifth Olympics. Conditions at the sailing venue in Qingdao would be difficult, Kendall said. “It’s just not a windy spot. If we’re lucky enough to have a typhoon come past then we’ll have some great sailing. If it doesn’t, there is going to be a lot of waiting around for a decent amount of wind.” Kendall said she had been training specifically for the lighter conditions to try to get her weight down while retaining the strength needed to pump the sail in the conditions. Having won gold medals at the 1992 Barcelona Games, a silver in Atlanta in 1996 and bronze at Sydney in 2000, Kendall, who turns 41 in August, said she had not ruled out the possibility of competing in London in 2012. “I haven’t written it off, no. I’m never going to say never because you just don’t do that,” she said.