The country's greatest boardsailor was in the city yesterday to speak to Dunedin's elite secondary school athletes at Columba College.
The message the 42-year-old delivered to the pupils was that high-achieving athletes like herself were just normal people who got the best out of themselves.
It is a message she would like to send Yachting New Zealand's top brass.
Describing the current standard of boardsailing in the country as "stink", Kendall told the Otago Daily Times that administrators had to lift their game before the sport got stuck in the doldrums.
"They [Yachting New Zealand] still haven't employed a coach to co-ordinate boardsailing in New Zealand, which is unbelievable.
They've got sailing coaches but haven't got a boardsailing coach," Kendall complained.
"When boardsailing has been at the forefront of New Zealand yachting, they still haven't identified the fact that they actually better put something back.
"There is no-one, really, who is coming through and they better do something in a hurry if they want to keep the great momentum that we've had going for many, many years."
Kendall was a huge part of that success.
She is the only New Zealand woman to go to five Olympics, winning gold at the Barcelona Games in 1992, silver in Atlanta in 1996 and bronze in Sydney in 2000, before placing fifth in Athens in 2004 and sixth in Beijing last year.
But after 16 years at the top of her sport, Kendall opted to take a break after Beijing and has not decided whether she will return to the sport to compete at the elite level.
"I'll have to make my mind up halfway through next year. It is the latest I can make that decision because it will take me a year and a-half to get up to speed."
Kendall earns a living on the speaking circuit, which involves a lot of travel around New Zealand and also overseas.
She is a member of the International Olympic Committee and has just taken on a new role as the outreach educator for the Oceania region, helping athletes with career transition.
