A Kitchen’s place is on the podium. Despite an uphill climb, a dedicated local sportswoman is finally set to follow in her father’s wake by representing New Zealand at the Olympic Games.
Although she’s had more than just a few hoops to jump through, kitefoiler Justina Kitchen notes one barrier as tougher than most to overcome during her quest to compete beneath the Olympic rings at the Paris games.
“Athletes can struggle with self-belief and confidence, so having my dad [double Olympic medal-winning sailor, Rex Sellers] tell me I can do it, and [having self-belief] has been huge,” the Kiwi competitor told the Times. “You never want to be in a situation where your competitor has won before the race has started.”
Pulled by kites, kitefoilers effectively fly above the surface of the water on foils while reaching top speeds of more than 80 kilometres per hour. It’s a high speed, high risk modern take on windsurfing.
With everything to play for, Justina says she has picked up the pace recently and invested in faster equipment. Whether this will be enough to see her sail to the top of the Olympic podium will become clear soon enough.
“I think I will fly under the radar a little bit during the first part of the competition,” the former Macleans College student says. “I’d say I’m an outside chance for a medal, but in some ways that’s an advantage – I have no pressure, with no one really expecting [much] from me. Kiting’s non-traditional ‘winner-takes-all format’ in the finals means that, if I make the top 10, I can win a medal on the final day.”
It hasn’t been a smooth road to France, as previously reported by Jim Birchall. Shoulder surgery prevented Justina from competing in windsurfing at the London Olympics (2012) and an about-face on a move to replace windsurfing with kitefoiling scuttled her Olympic ambitions in 2016.
Following time out from sport (for marriage, to start a family and pursue her studies) Justina almost saw her aims come a cropper again late last year during an event in Weymouth.
“The board flipped over, which would never normally happen. I landed on my leg and dislocated it, bending it backwards the wrong way,” she recalls. “In five years of kitefoiling I’d never landed in that position before. It was a very bad crash.”
Despite rupturing her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and medial collateral ligament (MCL), Justina refused to let this latest setback cost her the chance to go for Olympic gold.
“It’s amazing that something I’ve wanted and worked towards for such a long time has finally come to fruition. It’s incredibly satisfying. I’m beyond excited to show everyone what I can do and I’m making the most of the entire experience.”
Support crew
While she credits friends and family (including her husband, Chris, and the couple’s two young daughters) as being the wind beneath her wings, a duo of Olympic champions has helped Justina Kitchen fill her ‘sails’.
“Both my parents have been incredibly supportive during my entire sailing career – nothing would be possible without them,” she asserts. “Dad [Rex Sellers] has always been a huge inspiration and sounding board. He is a huge information source with anything I want to chat about or talk through, from equipment and weather to tactics.”
As kitefoiling will make its Olympic debut at the Paris games, Justina could become one of the sport’s first Olympic medallists, mirroring the exploits of another east Aucklander, Bruce Kendall, who claimed windsurfing’s first bronze medal in 1984, followed by gold four years later.
“Bruce coached me often as a youth – his influence and the influence of a strong NZ boardsailing legacy was inspirational,” Justina adds. “When I first started windsurfing, in the mid 2000s, it was a very cool time to be a part of that community and it has set me up going forward.”
To read more about Bruce Kendall’s Olympic predictions click here.
The Paris Olympic Games’ sailing events will be contested in the South of France from July 28. A full schedule is accessible via www.olympic.org.nz.
