Athletes and coaches often get the accolades but in today's King's Birthday Honours, two women behind some of our biggest sporting events have been celebrated.
Michelle Hooper was the tournament director for the 2021 Rugby World Cup, held in 2022, while Andrea Nelson was chief executive of the 2022 Cricket World Cup.
Nelson managed her event while Auckland was in the grips of the Omicron outbreak, with event plans changing by the hour.
"We had probably six, seven, eight plans for whether it was Level 3, Level 2, borders open or shut, and even during our event we were changing plans," said Nelson.
While crowds were back in full force for October's Rugby World Cup, Hooper had a different challenge on her hands.
"When I started the job in 2020 there'd never been tickets sold to women's rugby here in New Zealand by New Zealand Rugby – they'd never sold tickets. By the end of the Rugby World Cup we'd sold 150,000 match tickets to the tournament and broken the world record – twice."
Along with next month's FIFA Women's World Cup, the events mark a special passage in New Zealand sport's history – three top level women's world cups run by women in 16 months.
The experience has bonded the duo in a special way.
"We were each other's support person, practical advice, cheering squad," said Nelson.
Michelle Hooper and Andrea Nelson were today named our newest members of the New Zealand Order of Merit. (Source: 1News)
She added that Hooper and her team were even on standby to fill in should anyone in the Cricket World Cup team get infected with Covid-19.
"Michelle had said to me in my darkest hour, 'don't worry, you'll get a medal for this'. I did actually think of her first [when she received her MNZM]. I was going to text her and say 'guess what?'"
Hooper said having "really strong other female leaders who are walking the same line as you and understand that is a really empowering feeling".
Both have worked in sports administration for decades from Olympic campaigns to America's Cups, but they know how special the past year has been for women's sport.
"If you're a young girl now, the opportunities are so much wider and the stars are so much closer. You can build a professional career as a sportsperson, as an administrator as a media person – the opportunities are there in a way they weren't in the past," said Nelson. "Isn't it an incredible time to be in the sector?"
"If any little human feels like they've got a place and a space to go and play sport because of what was achieved last year – whether it was cricket or rugby, that feeling of belonging and that's your sport – everyone deserves to feel like that," added Hooper.
Becoming members of the New Zealand Order of Merit is also a reward for those who've gone before, she explained.
"That's a legacy of many women who've never been acknowledged in sport for leadership so I like to think that honour is recognising them and that contribution as well."
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