Marcus Agnew: Dame Valerie 'one heck of an athlete'

Dame Valerie Adams with her Barbie doll. Photo / File

Well, who would have thought it, Dame Valerie Adams is the latest Barbie doll.

Maybe I am out of touch with the whole Barbie scene, I just didn't see this coming, but hey it's about damn time, and it's great.

I was going to say luckily, but in actual fact, due to us having the best facilities and weather in the country, we have had Dame Valerie here in Hawke's Bay over the last month, training along with the rest of the Athletics New Zealand's high performance team.

It has been brilliant having them all here, Tom Walsh, Eliza McCartney, and all the athletics team are of course a huge inspiration to all our young emerging Hawke's Bay sports people who get to train alongside them.

In particular it was powerful to see first-hand what an inspirational impression they were able to make on not just the rising athletes in the Sports Performance Gym, but also all the others, young and old, who passed through the institute.

Dame Valerie, the latest Barbie doll role model, was exactly that, an amazing role model, stepping out of her training to come and speak to the many kids from Flaxmere and Wairoa, who were visiting the same facility as part of the Hawke's Bay Community Fitness Centres Sport & Life programmes.

To see Dame Valerie making such an impact on some of the less privileged communities was awesome, and such a big part of what being an elite athlete should be all about.

For those kids to get up close and hear inspirational words from these great kiwis, inspiring them to live well and be the best they can be - that is gold.

Marcus Agnew.

Overhearing a group of wide-eyed young girls saying "wow how crazy was that, I just got within two feet of an Olympic champion" is so cool, and now to have Dame Valerie going the next level to a Barbie role model, and breaking down those old female stereotypes, is extra cool.

People may laugh and say Barbies don't have much impact, it's only a doll, but who knows what a profound impact it could have on a young girl. If all the dolls they own are ridiculously figured long lean blondes in skimpy outfits, and a young girl's spending hour after hour in their formative years, deep in imagination games with those figures as their idols – that can't be good, and is certainly isn't real.

So to have the Barbie bosses stand up, and make some real super woman as Barbie role models, especially seeing our own well deserving people like Dame Valerie rightfully being idolised, is fantastic.

Dame Valerie helps define the meaning of fitness, too often when people think fit, they just think long distance, running or cycling, but no, fitness is way more than that.

Fitness isn't all about the cardio, yes it is important, but maintaining athletic ability, developing strength and maintaining quality of movement is probably more important for day-to-day quality of life, and as a basis for sports performance. Who wouldn't want to be more physically powerful, strength and speed – it's got to be good for you – and Dame Valerie epitomises that.

She is certainly one heck of an athlete – you look at her and you go 'wow – what an athlete', yes she has got some helpful genetics with some size, but so have lots of people, she has also got the worth ethic and everything else that has made her a lean mean machine, she just looks like an elite global athlete. And on top of that she is humble, friendly and approachable – happy to give up her time, she obviously has life in perspective, helped of course be being a mum.

So having Valerie Adams as the latest Barbie is brilliant, it's got to be good for our girls. Surely it will make girls more accepting of themselves and the way the are, more accepting of others, and maybe even a little less judging and bullying.

And from a sports performance perspective it's got to be good for New Zealand too, inspiring more girls to want to train for better strength and speed will only make our sports teams more competitive in the future – go Dame Valerie.

Marcus Agnew is the health and sport development manager at Hawke's Bay Community Fitness Centre Trust and a lecturer in sports science at EIT.