Sportswoman ready to empower women

The first female diver in the South African Navy, Nickey Barnard, is creating giant leaps in her career.

The local resident enjoys breaking the boundaries and doing things that seem impossible for women.

Her gruelling experience as a diver includes taking on men’s 20 push-ups, running 3km, an hour aerobics and finish off with 75 laps of swimming in a 25m pool.

She left the navy and went to live in Scortland, and when she returned to South Africa, she set a goal to break a scuba-diving record of 25 hours under water to raise funds for her niece.

She then decided to retire from all diving sports and has since set a new goal, which is to empower women through fitness programmes.

“My passion is women, I want to empower them and to uplift them,”she said.

“What I am trying to do is to give back to women who feel they are not worthy of looking good…women who are not comfortable in their own skin.”

She profusely added, “I mainly focus on working with women who have a lot happening in their lives…Women go through a lot in their lives and sometimes they don’t feel good about themselves.”

In October this year, Barnard will launch her new fitness programme which is dedicated specifically to women of all shapes and age groups. She will also be going the extra mile to empower women in townships. The fitness programme includes the likes of Jillian Michaels from The biggest loser, offering workout to women.

Every year, Barnard enjoys partaking in the Comrades Marathon.