Alongside consulting with the public on the draft Integrity Code, we sat down to chat with some legends and leaders from the sporting world – all of whom happen to be board members here at the Sport Integrity Commission Te Kahu Raunui.

In this post, we chat to Paralympic medalist Rebecca McDonald about having persistent parents, how perspectives change after retirement and her thoughts on the Commission’s mahi.

Sport and recreation is something I could easily have missed out on when I was younger because some of those community spaces can be inaccessible to those with disabilities. But my parents were adamant that I would have the same experiences as my brother and sister, so I ended up involved in all sorts of activities. I did wheelchair tennis, wheelchair basketball, swimming, surf lifesaving – you name it.

Getting involved wasn’t always easy. When my mum first signed me up to a swimming club, she didn’t tell them that I used a wheelchair. They were pretty surprised when I showed up. My mum argued with the coach right there by the side of the pool, and they let me join. My involvement in sport is really down to the persistence of my parents never taking ‘no’ for an answer.

Life as a high-performance athlete started young, and I've made lifelong friendships through competing in sport. My first overseas trip without my mum came when I was 14, and I flew to Darwin for my first international competition. I remember crying at the airport – but it was actually a lot of fun and the team were incredibly supportive. I also met my repeat roommate for the next 14 years on that trip – Mary Fisher. We went through our Para sport careers together.

But my journey as an athlete was never straightforward. I choked at my first major international swim meet because of the intense pressure and expectation. But it made me more resolved to get to London 2012. I made it, but it wasn’t quite the competition I’d planned. I’d had persistent shoulder and elbow issues leading up to the event. One day I woke up and I couldn’t use my arm – frightening for someone who relies on their upper body strength. After all the surgeries, I got back in the pool and went on to medal at the Pan Pacific Swimming Champs, then the World Champs in Glasgow. I finally made it to the Rio Paralympics and won bronze, despite being hospitalised in the weeks leading up to the Games. I’m a pretty resilient person.

After retirement, I remained connected to sport and recreation through my communications role with the Halberg Foundation. Through that role I learned the importance of recreation and participating in sport. It was such a change from my high-performance career, and really eye-opening. It gave me an added sense of purpose in advocating for ways disabled communities can access and participate in sport and recreation.

I’m a really values-focused person in general, and it was interesting to feel my interest in integrity issues amplify after I retired. Once you’re out of a situation you’ve been immersed in, the distance allows you to reflect differently on things that seemed perfectly normal at the time. For example, maybe a coach calling you “babe” at 16 isn’t OK. Maybe it’s not appropriate for a coach to be driving a 13-year old athlete home alone.

People may not think that the work of the Commission applies to the recreational activities they access. But what I want people to know is that the Commission’s work and the Integrity Code will impact everyone. We all have a connection to sport and recreation, whether we participate ourselves, coach, volunteer, or something else.

My mum’s a late-blooming hiker who has walked the Milford Track three times. The Integrity Code applies to her and to her hiking club as much as it applies to high-performance athletes. To make the Integrity Code truly reflective of all New Zealanders, it requires people from lots of different backgrounds to feed in with their unique experiences. Whoever you are, your feedback can help to change sport and recreation for the better.