Trailblazers with Rikki and Kirstie

Yvette McCausland-Durie has established herself as one of the country's premier coaches. A talented athlete who competed at the world junior athletics champs and played for the NZ under-21 netball team, Yvette joins the show to talk about her upbringing in rural Northland, her other life as a teacher and educator, what she's learned throughout her netball coaching career and why she doesn't get too high or too low over results. 

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Rebecca Sowden is on a mission to correct the internet. A former Football Fern, Rebecca is a branding and sponsorship guru who has worked around the world and has turned her skills to changing mindsets about women’s sport. She joins the show to talk about her latest campaign, FIFA’s failed Visit Saudi partnership and the value of women’s sport.

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This week Sarah Cowley-Ross joins Rikki to look back on a phenomenal Athletics career and take us behind the curtain of how hard it is to qualify for an Olympic games and the resilience it takes to get through a tough performance on a big stage.

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Lorina Papali'i is dual international athlete, having represented New Zealand in rugby league and Samoa in rugby union in a career dating back to 1994. In 2018 she was named in the New Zealand Warriors NRLW squad and in doing so, she and her son, Isaiah Papali'i became the first mother and son to play for the same club. She sits down with Rikki Swannell to discuss her storied career.

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Ruth Croft has gone from dodging electric fences on the West Coast to becoming one of the world’s best trail and ultra marathons runners, where she takes on races upwards of 100km in extraordinary places around the world.

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Kendra Cocksedge is our final guest of the year on Trailblazers. She’s retired from rugby as our most capped Black Fern, leading points scorer and a three time World Cup winner. She reflects on an extraordinary finish to a stellar career

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Leanne Walker is a 2 time Olympian, 13 year veteran and the First Lady of NZ Basketball (though she'll tell you she's not). This week she sits down with Rikki to talk about how the sport became her life, share some stories from her Olympic campaigns, her coaching philosophies and pathways for the next generation of women coming through the sport.

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Liz Dawson is one of New Zealand’s most highly respected sports leaders. From a ski instructor in Austria, CEO of the Adelaide Rams at the height of the Super League wars, chair of the recent Cricket World Cup and now President of the NZOC, Liz offers a fascinating insight to what it’s really like having a seat at the table.

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Joanna Ayela Alehis a New Zealand sailor, former national and world champion, Olympic gold medallist. Rikki sits down with the Trailblazer to find out how she got into sailing, the London Olympics and her work in growing the pathways for Women in Sailing.

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Maia Jackman is one of the most recognizable faces in NZ football. During a two decade career she played 50 times for the Football Ferns and turned out for the FIFA All Stars.

She talks about a career that was far from a perfect straight line, the upcoming Women’s World Cup and what she’s discovered about “murdering middle age".

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