Jennifer Enid McDonald (née Bint; born 18 July 1949 in
Whangārei
Whangārei () is the northernmost city in New Zealand and the largest settlement of the Northland Region. It is part of the Whangarei District, created in 1989 from the former Whangarei City, Whangarei County and Hikurangi Town councils to admi ...
) is a retired
field hockey
Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...
player from New Zealand, who captained the
national team
A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport.
The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...
that finished sixth at the
1984 Summer Olympics
The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...
in Los Angeles.
Born Jennifer Enid Bint, McDonald grew up in the farming locality of
Maungakaramea, in
Northland. She studied teaching in Auckland, then taught at the primary school in
Outram, near
Dunedin
Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...
, where she met her future husband, Rex McDonald.
McDonald played 192 matches for the national hockey team from 1971 to 1985, including 94 tests, and captained the team from 1980 to 1985. She was the only New Zealander selected in a World XI that played the world champion Netherlands in a one-off encounter in Scotland in 1980.
She retired from hockey at 53 after breaking her wrist. Later, she became President of the Otago Hockey Association, then chair of Southern Regional Hockey.
[
In 1996, McDonald was inducted into the ]New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame
The New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame is an organisation commemorating New Zealand's greatest sporting triumphs. It was inaugurated as part of the New Zealand sesquicentenary celebrations in 1990. Some 160 members have been inducted into the hall ...
.New Zealand Hockey Federation
New Zealand Hockey Federation Incorporated, also known as Hockey New Zealand, is the sport governing body, governing body overseeing, promoting and managing the sport of field hockey in New Zealand. It is a full member of the International Hockey ...
in 2002.[
McDonald retired from teaching in 2014 after being principal of Elmgrove School in ]Mosgiel
Mosgiel () is an urban satellite of Dunedin in Otago, New Zealand, fifteen kilometres west of the city's centre. Since the re-organisation of New Zealand local government in 1989 it has been inside the Dunedin City Council area. Mosgiel has a p ...
, Otago
Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...
, for 10 years.[
]
References
External links
*
*
1949 births
Living people
New Zealand female field hockey players
Olympic field hockey players for New Zealand
Field hockey players at the 1984 Summer Olympics
Field hockey players from Whangārei
Heads of schools in New Zealand
20th-century New Zealand sportswomen
{{NewZealand-fieldhockey-bio-stub