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FEATURE ARTICLE
Celebrating Success: New Zealand Order of Merit Sharon Kearney Sharon Kearney has been one of New Zealand’s leading Sports Physiotherapists for decades. This year she was recognised for her contribution to Physiotherapy and Netball by being recognised as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) on the 2020 Queens Birthday Honours List. We caught up with Sharon after the awards. JL: Congratulations on being recognised on the 2020 Queens Birthday Honours list as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit… How did that come about? SK: I got an email when I was in self-isolation actually, having just flown back from Europe on a mercy dash home to get away from COVID-19, and there was an email in my inbox. It looked like spam actually, because it has brackets around it, so I ignored it… and then as I was in isolation I thought I better have a look at some emails I received while I was away and I thought ‘oh I better open this’ and that’s when I saw it and I thought Oh my goodness me! The email stated that I had been nominated for a MNZM and would I like to accept essentially.
JL: That’s wonderful SK: That’s how you find out… and I did hear of someone else who ignored it and didn’t even know he had been nominated because of the way it looks in your inbox, it doesn’t look real, and to me I guess it still doesn’t feel real.
JL: You were nominated by Netball New Zealand? SK: You don’t know who nominates you. My understanding is that you get nominated but has to be supported by other people, so you don’t actually know who nominates you, you have no idea.
JL: Well in that case it was us…(disclaimer: SEPNZ did not nominate Shaz but we should have). You have been to three Netball World Youth Cups as the NZ Netball U21 Physio, you were the Medical Co-ordinator for Netball New Zealand, you have attended five World Cups and two Commonwealth Games with the Silver Ferns. What was your highlight? SK: I suppose the ultimate highlight if we are thinking from a performance perspective was the Commonwealth Games Gold Medal Final in New Delhi where we beat Australia in double overtime. That was a pretty outstanding effort, and was a definite performance highlight. I think probably highlights in general terms of my all roles has just been watching players develop and watching how physio can have such an impact in sport. And not just as an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, but also from a performance enhancement and injury prevention perspective. This has been my modus operandi from when I first got involved with Netball. That’s the exciting thing. I have just been away with some current U21’s this weekend and working with that age group again and watching how, from a movement perspective, we can educate, we help players grow their physical capability and what a difference we can make. From a physiotherapy perspective we undersell our impact and we need to start celebrating what physiotherapy as a profession can offer and what a difference we can make, especially to the young athletes.
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