OPINION: As Beyonce said, who runs the world? Girls.
We will take a look at the ladies who have shaped the sporting nation this year.
The Silver Ferns dominate the list, but they are joined by a couple of winter Olympics athletes too.
KATRINA RORE
After plumbing the depths of despair at the Commonwealth Games and being dropped from the Silver Ferns late last year, the former captain delivered the sporting comeback of the year, winning the ANZ Premiership with the Central Pulse, Suncorp Super Netball with the New South Wales Swifts and, of course, the World Cup with the Silver Ferns.
One of the true good sorts of New Zealand sport, there is no-one more deserving of success.
Andrew Gourdie, Newshub sports presenter
ALICE ROBINSON
In a country where sport is dominated by rugby, football and cricket, it’s easy for teenager Alice Robinson's accomplishments to pass under the radar.
The fresh-faced 18-year-old capped off a superb 2019 season with a silver medal at the World Cup finals giant slalom in Andorra, before breaking a 17-year drought as the first Kiwi to win at a World Cup event since Claudia Riegler in 1997, claiming gold in the giant slalom at Sölden.
And to round it all off, she became the junior world champion in giant slalom.
Sullivan Harnett, Newshub sports reporter
ZOI SADOWSKI-SYNNOTT
The teenage snowboarding sensation announced her arrival in late 2018, when she became just the second New Zealander to ever win a Winter Olympics medal.
She then rode that momentum into 2019, with a string of successes that pushed her beyond the realms of breakout star and into the elite of Kiwi sportswomen.
Still just 17 years of age, the Wanaka product clinched a slopestyle gold medal at the Winter X-Games in Colorado, with a jaw-dropping 'double wildcat' (double backflip), then added a silver in the big air for good measure.
Over the next two months, Sadowski-Synnott soared into rarefied air by securing slopestyle gold at the world championships, then repeating at the US Open. Her X-Games gold completed a historic 'triple crown' of snowboarding.
The sky's the limit in 2020 - both figuratively and literally.
Stephen Foote, Newshub online sports producer
KATRINA RORE
What a turnaround for the former Silver Ferns skipper in 2019.
Rore had a horror 2018, leading New Zealand through a disastrous Commonwealth Games campaign, before being dumped from the squad altogether by new coach Noeline Taurua.
But tremendous domestic form led to Rore's recall, after she led the Central Pulse to a first ANZ Premiership title. She was a rock for the Ferns during the World Cup, proving an automatic selection for Taurua.
Standing on the winners dias in Liverpool, celebrating with her teammates as a world champion, must have felt like a huge moment of redemption for the likable netballer.
Brad Lewis, Newshub online sports producer
NOELINE TAURUA
When the Silver Ferns returned from the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games medal-less, coach Janine Southby predictably became the sacrificial lamb.
Many questioned why the only coach to win a trans-Tasman netball league hadn't been seriously considered for the national job - but Netball NZ did not make the same mistake twice.
Taurua inherited a programme in disarray and made some tough calls in a bid to right the ship, dropping captain Katrina Rore, and bringing back 'retired' veterans Laura Langman and Casey Kopua.
Some contenders fell by the wayside when they failed to reach minimum fitness standards, while others seemed to survive purely on the basis they could run all day.
Taurua brought a tough, but fair approach that won the respect of her players and served them well in Liverpool, where their conditioning proved a telling point of difference over the closing stages.
With All Blacks and Blackcaps falling short at their respective World Cups, Taurua has gone from unwanted to New Zealand's premier team coach.
Grant Chapman, Newshub online sports editor
