The Life of Dr. Farah Palmer - Ex-Captain National Women Rugby Team New Zealand
Farah Rangikoepa Palmer, the former New Zealand Rugby team captain, was born in Te Kuiti in 1972. She belongs to a farming community called piopio. She was admitted in Piopio School and college during her youth. At that young age she used to play netball and participated in different kinds of sports such as athletics, swimming, tennis and, highland dancing.
The first time she played Rugby was just for fun during a match between the annual married and singles game held at college. After finishing school and college and completing her bachelors, Farah joined Octagon University, in 1992 and then the University Rugby Club. She did her PH.D, in sports sociology from the university. After completing her studies, she became the lecturer in sports management at Massy University, and also played the role of a Director of research at the same university from 2003 to 2006.
Along-side her academic career, she was really fond of the games themselves. She played Rugby at different levels inside New Zealand and won many awards. At the international level she made her debut for the New Zealand Women Rugby team, in 1996. She became the captain of the New Zealand women team in 1997.
She worked a lot for the organization and management of the team. She elevated the position of the team to a much higher level. During her reign she helped the New Zealand team attain great fame inside the country and outside around the world. Otherwise, the New Zealand team was in a state of depression and disappointment before her captainship .The team had failed to achieve many targets at different international events. But after Farah took the reins of the team in her hands she really improved the status of the team and women’s rugby in general.
She got her team to win records second to none in the International Rugby Union. The team lost just one match in the ten years of Farah’s era. During the 2002 world Cup Tournament they swept away all their hurdles, won the tournament in Spain and beat England in the final at the Barcelona Stadium. They maintained their position by winning the World Cup held in Amsterdam as well.
Farah player her role as captain of the team from 1998 to 2006 so efficiently, that she made the team able to win three world cups consecutively during the same period. During her reign, the New Zealand women Rugby team had dominated the world of women Rugby around the globe.
Farah’s career is considered to be a versatile one as she joined and worked in different fields at the same time. On one hand she reached the captaincy level in the field of sports and made the New Zealand team able to win three consecutive world cups, and on the other hand she continued her studies and got all the way to the PH.D level. She therefore disproved the common perception that studies and sports cannot go simultaneously, due to the diversity of both fields. She continued her academic research and philosophy and went on studying the complicated ideas and concepts related to sports so as to understand them better.
She worked simultaneously at different position as she was not only the captain for the Black Fern New Zealand and won three consecutive World Cups with them, she was also an acting Director at Massy University and Maori Business Research Center and an Executive member of the Board of Directors at Center of Research Excellence at Auckland.
Besides these roles she was holding other community roles such as the fact that she was a member of the Executive Board at the University of Sports, a member of the Sports Disputes Tribunal and a Trustee member of the Council of Clubs.
In short, Farah’s life was really very versatile. She was a sports woman, a student and a leader all at the same time at different organizations. After working for quite a while in a multitude of fields she finally brought down the curtain on her truly remarkable career. She retired from the International Women Rugby scene and started her family life. Farah is simply a housewife now, living with her family and nursing her newly born baby. But owing to her amazing career, during the captainship era, Farah’s name will be feature prominently in International Women Ruby forever. Her name will always be there among the greatest legends of Rugby and will shine on above the heavens of New Zealand.
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