When most of us turn the big 4-0, we might organise a little party or perhaps a spot of self-indulgence. Silver Fern legend Anna Harrison bought a mountain bike.
“I just can’t seem to get away from sport,” she tells Woman’s Day with a laugh. “It was a birthday and a 10-year wedding anniversary gift. I can’t believe Craig and I have been married for that long!
“It’s been really nice, actually. I knew it would be good to find something new that I didn’t have anything to compare myself or others to. I’ve really loved it! It’s been part of the healing process.”
There’s been the need for a little “healing” in the past few years since Anna, one of New Zealand netball’s greatest players, retired from the court for good in 2021. The adjustment is one the mum-of-three is still trying to get her head around.
“It’s kind of like a grieving period when you leave your sport,” she tells. “I haven’t left completely – I’m still dabbling in a few different areas – but I knew it was time to leave netball when I did.
“I’ve watched a lot of the ANZ Championship games this year and I haven’t wanted to be out there playing, so that is a good sign of moving on!
“But it’s such a change in your lifestyle and when you’ve been playing top-level sport since you were a teenager, being an athlete becomes your identity. I still identify as an athlete, just an older, not-as-intense-one, mainly because apart from having a very clear role as a mother, I don’t have a career sussed to identify with yet.”
While hanging up her netball bib has been a journey for the star defender, life has been “pretty good” lately as she’s balancing being mum to Isaac, nine, Georgia, eight, and three-year-old Benjamin with indoor volleyball, a bit of netball commentating and studying for a positive psychology and wellbeing diploma, plus coaching Georgia’s netball team!
“Coaching her team is fun, once I got used to the crazy, easily distracted attitudes of eight-year-olds at a practice!”
It’s a welcome relief for Anna, who says the juggle became one that she no longer wanted to endure during her final unplanned season playing for the Northern Stars in 2021, following her first retirement in 2018.
“It was a process of managing the tiredness and the craziness of being a parent, then performing on the court – and I have high standards,” she says. “The balance was pretty difficult at times.”
And now the sporting spotlight in the Harrison house is slowly moving to the little ones with Isaac and Georgia dipping their toes into organised sports.
“I signed Georgia up for volleyball last year, which was such a surreal moment!” Anna laughs. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is really cool’. One of the things on my bucket list is to play a beach volleyball tournament with her, so I need to hang in for another few years. But she seems really into sport. Isaac is too, but they’re all different, right? He’s not as intense – I was such an intense player! I see that more in Georgia. Isaac is chill!”
Anna and Craig are bringing up kids (from left) Isaac, Georgia and Benjamin to give all sports a go.
And though she’s no longer hitting the court herself, Anna hasn’t let her beloved sport go completely – as well as commentating matches for Sky Sport and the all-important primary school coaching, of course – Anna also tried her hand at coaching at the elite level this year, coming on board with her old team the Northern Stars as a specialist defence coach.
“It was really nice to come in and see the girls – I really enjoyed that. Sport is just so much of who I am and it’s cool to still be involved with netball in other ways.”
Having more time to spend with the kids has been a joy for Anna. “The older two kind of back each other up now, which is really cute in a way because yay, the kids have each other’s backs. But also, they’re definitely ganging up on us! Parenting is a challenge, that’s for sure!”
Both Anna and Craig, a sports scientist who runs the Athlete Development Project for aspiring athletes, are very careful to not pressure the kids to follow a sporting path, rather the focus is about exposing them to all different kinds of activities that are good for them.
Anna, who was acknowledged in this year’s New Years Honours for services and contributions to both netball and volleyball by becoming a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, is also doing her bit to help change the conversations around women’s sport, particularly when it comes to beach volleyball and uniforms.
A proud moment for Anna.
Anna’s leant her voice to the growing movement around redesigning women’s uniforms to better suit players’ needs by bringing awareness to the fact that bikinis are not compulsory for beach volleyball.
“A couple of summers ago, when Georgia would come to games and see me playing in a bikini, she started asking me to buy one for her,” says Anna. “Then every time she’d play soccer in the backyard with her cousins or have a hit around with me, she’d run inside and put her bikini on. And it led me to an internal conversation with myself about how it is totally not necessary, but then she’s just watched a whole lot of us do just that!”
Now with her daughter soon to enter her teenage years, Anna says there’s never been a more important time to have the wider conversations around women in sport.
“I know now that there are so many girls in New Zealand who don’t give volleyball a go because they don’t want to wear a bikini – and you totally don’t have to. I’d hate to think people aren’t playing sport because of what you have to wear.”
Bikini ban! The volleyball star is making the sport more inclusive.
As she moves into a new, post-professional netball chapter of her life, Anna says she’s just grateful for all the time she had on court and is looking forward to moving into her 40s re-energised and happy.
“It does feel like a big change in number, but you know what? It doesn’t change how I am. Now it’s all about doing what I need to do to maintain and train for life – although I did come back from a New Zealand volleyball camp incredibly sore!
“But hey, what can you do? I’ll keep going for as long as I can!”
