Anniversary for a colorful French woman. All-rounder Eunice Barber - 50! (0)

One of the most colorful and versatile athletes of the late 20th and early 20th century - Eunice Barber - turns half a century old today!

Born on November 17, 1974 in the capital on the little one African country Sierra Leone - Freetown - Eunice grew up a big and strong girl and was soon noticed by the French coaches. Not yet 18 years old, Barber started at her first major competition - the Olympics in Barcelona (1992). Inexperienced and embarrassed by her rivals, Younis recorded a zero in the sixth discipline of the women's heptathlon (the javelin) and was only 26th. In the same 1992, she moved to live, study and train permanently in France..... After missing 1994, Eunice appeared at her second world championship (after Stuttgart 1993) – in Gothenburg 1995. With self-confidence and ambition she reached fourth place – 6340 points (a new national record for Sierra Leone and a new continental record for Africa). At Ulevi Stadium, Barber improves his personal records in six (!) of the seven disciplines of the heptathlon ....

At his second Olympics - in Atlanta 1996 - Barber finished fifth in the heptathlon - 6342 points. (improving, if only by two points, his record). In the same year, at the Dekastar tournament in Talance, she improved the African record for the umpteenth time - 6416 points.

In March 1997 at the European Indoor Championships in Bercy Younis was sixth in the pentathlon, again with a continental record (4553 points). Unfortunately, at the World Championships in Athens in August, Barber was unable to finish the heptathlon due to an injury..... In the following 1998, Younis (due to a chronic injury) emphasized only the long jump and set new records in Sierra Leone (6.86 m indoors and outdoors 6.75 m).

On February 3, 1999 Barber finally received French citizenship . At the world championships in Seville at the end of August, he brought the first gold medal for his new country, France, in the heptathlon - 6861 points! Her results in the individual disciplines: 100 m rep. 12.89, high jump. 1.93; cannonball 12.37; 200m 23.57 and on the second day 6.86m in long jump, 45.87 in javelin and 2:15.65 in 800m. A month earlier, at the "Gas de France" tournament in Paris, Eunice crossed seven meters in the long jump for the first time - 7.01 m.....

In the Olympic 2000, Eunice Barber remained only 19 points away from her record, winning the "Hippobank" tournament in the "Mecca of all-around", the Austrian town of Götzis (6842 points). However, at the Sydney Games at the end of September, Barber was injured precisely in his strongest discipline - the long jump - and did not finish the competition..... The situation was repeated in 2001 - Younis was again first in Götzis (6736 t .), but at the world championships in Edmonton (after the powerful start - 12.78 in the 100 m hurdles) with an attempt at 1.91 m in the jump of height suffers a hamstring strain and is out….

In 2003 the world championship was entrusted to France (Paris, "Stade de France"). Alas, in the heptathlon, the hosts' hopes for gold evaporated after the powerful blow of Sweden's Karolina Kluft (7001 points). Silver remains for Barber – 6755 points. Six days later, Barber again looked set to lose the gold, this time in the long jump. Before the last sixth round, she is "equal" with the Russian Tatiana Kotova (both have 6.74 m). However, Kotova has the advantage of a better second attempt - 6.72 m against 6.52 m for Younis. Supported by a crowd of 40,000, Barber stepped up inspired in her final jump and..... landed at 6.99m - a gold medal for France on home soil! Two weeks later in Monaco, Younis "broke" the French record again - this time in the long jump (7.05 m).

In the year of her fourth Olympics (2004), Barber was haunted by numerous injuries and in Athens she only participated in the long jump - 6.48 m in the qualification...

Completely cured, in 2005, Eunice rushed again to the heptathlon (French record 6889 points from the tournament in Arles – 12.62 (+2.9); 1.91; 12.61; 24.12 (+1.2); 6.78 (+3.4); 53.07; 2 :14.66)). But at the planet championship in Helsinki, Barber again lost (albeit by only 63 points) to Kluft (who, by the way, duplicated his title from Paris two years earlier). 3 days later, in the final of the long jump, Younis (in the pouring rain of the stadium) again took silver, this time after the American Tiana Madison (6.76m against 6.89m).

Eunice Barber gradually withdrew from the all-around and devoted herself only to the long jump. In 2006 and 2007 (now almost 33), for two years in a row she was first in the European Cup (Super League) - respectively in Malaga (6.61 m) and in Munich (6.73 m). Her last active year in athletics was 2013 (Barber is already 39), and even at this venerable age, Eunice is not given to younger people - 6.55 m!

Since retiring from athletics, Barber has been a film actress, graphic designer (with her own website), and tour operator for a major travel agency.

Still (and today!) France's long jump and heptathlon record holder, Eunice Barber has enviable personal bests in many disciplines: 100m 11.52; 200 m 23.27; 400 m 53.49; 800m 2:10.55; 100 m sprint 12.62; 400 m sprint 57.54; high jump 1.93; long jump 7.05; shot put 14.12 and javelin 53.10m, heptathlon 6889 points.... If her seven personal bests collect for one common seventh o fight , it would result in the impressive sum of 7247 points. During his 23-year career on the circuit, Barber has 17 heptathlons with results above the grandmaster 6,000 points.