The new Barber of Seville remembers her
roots
Nick Davies for IAAF
24 August1999 - The most complete woman athlete on the planet may have been singing La Marseillaise once she had secured heptathlon gold on Sunday night. But Eunice Barber, born and raised in Sierra Leone, was also making history as the first African born athlete to ever win a combined event at global level.
"It’s a victory for France, for the people who have supported me and for my club" said a breathless but delighted Barber after winning the 800 metres, the last of seven events that make up this gruelling discipline. "But I also share this gold with my family in Sierra Leone and I hope peace will return to my country," Barber said.
Tall and long limbed, Barber’s natural ability had originally been spotted by Dominique Dufour, a French diplomat who started an athetics club in Freetown, the Sierra Leone capital. As a child and young woman, Barber grew up playing at the stadium in Freetown, where her mother worked as a secretary. "My mother gave me a lot of courage in my career," Barber ran, jumped, threw and she also formed a rap group with her friends. It seemed like fate then that she would end up as a combined star, and one whose exuberant style extends to a silver nose ring and dreadlocks.
Barber’s first contact with France would come in 1990 when she was invited to visit the country by the National Olympic Committee. In 1993 she decided to move to France full-time but she continued to represent Sierra Leone, finishing fifth in Atlanta in 1996 and fourth at the 1995 World Champs. But she has been training in France since 1993 and decided to take French citizenship.
Her form this year has been fantastic and she set a new French long jump record of 7.01 at the recent Paris Grand Prix. With personal bests in the 100m hurdles and high jump on the first day of the heptathlon here in Seville she was always in command. She sealed her victory with yet another personal best in the javelin on Sunday, building up a huge head ahead of the concluding 800m, which is one of her best events.
With 6,861 points, she set the season's best total and a new French record, improving her personal best by more than 300 points.
Supremely confident, Barber was able to cope easily with a terrible performance in the shot – where she finished second to last of all the competitors. "Even then I had no doubts, I just pushed forward," she recalls. "But I was very emotional before the 800 and had many thoughts in my mind."
Britain’s Denise Lewis, who was heavily featured in an adidas advertising campaign throughout the city, was never able to threaten Barber and won her second successive World Championship silver. Curiously enough, Lewis and Barber could have been teammates since Barber was approached after the Atlanta Olympics by British team officials, as Sierra Leone is an English speaking country. But Barber preferred Paris to London, and now fluent in French, is set to become a national celebrity.
