When Sammie Maxwell became the first New Zealander to win a UCI World Series title in October, it was a triumph with many layers.
The 23-year-old clinched the mountain bike cross country title after finishing second in the 10th and final round in Canada, the culmination of a season that saw her achieve five wins and nine podium places.
Taupō-born Maxwell has been open about her struggles with an eating disorder and in 2024, Cycling NZ selectors were not convinced that she was healthy enough to be selected for the Olympic Games. She appealed, and less than two weeks before the opening ceremony, she received the call that confirmed she’d be competing in Paris, where she finished eighth.
Maxwell saw that achievement as a chance to push forward and she built up a sizeable lead in this year’s World Series, which started in April in Brazil, before moving to Europe and concluding in North America. But the late season form of Swede Jenny Rissveds meant that Maxwell found herself not only challenged physically, but mentally, reaching out to her coach and calling her psychologist when she was struggling. Acknowledging that was a key part of her ability to reach the top in 2025.
“It’s been an incredible season and now it’s time to learn from this season, rest, recover and trust the process and be excited,” said Maxwell after clinching the title.
“It has been such an incredible season for mountain biking in New Zealand and I am just excited to see what we can do with the next generation. The future is exciting.”
Winning one major tennis title is impressive enough, but in 2025, Erin Routliffe and her Canadian doubles partner Gabriela Dabrowski became just the fifth pair in US Open history to win multiple women’s doubles titles.
Thirty-year-old Routliffe, and Dabrowski, had previously won the 2023 edition at Flushing Meadows, before reaching the 2024 Wimbledon final and taking the number one doubles ranking.
“For Gaby and I, with our partnership, we always said that together, we wanted to be multiple-time Grand Slam champions,” said Routliffe after their victory in New York.
The pair went on to announce their split last month, after winning a total of seven titles together.
“It happens all the time in doubles, business partnerships end, so we both knew it had ended and we’re really grateful for it happening,” says Routliffe.
“We lasted a really long time while a lot of people barely last a month or two.”
Routliffe intends to play at the ASB Classic in Auckland next month, with her partner yet to be confirmed. Then it’s time to chase down more Grand Slam titles.
What a year it’s been for the 19-year-old. After two seasons playing for Auckland in the Farah Palmer Cup, Sorensen-McGee made her debut for the Blues in Super Rugby Aupiki in March this year, and her season snowballed from there. The outside back scored four tries in Aupiki before making her Black Ferns debut against Australia in May.
After being selected in their squad for the Rugby World Cup in England, she scored 11 tries in the tournament, including hat-tricks against both Japan and Ireland, on her way to being the leading points scorer with 69 (including seven conversions).
She was named World Rugby Women’s 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year for 2025 before making her Black Ferns Sevens debut in Dubai at the end of November. On the eve of that tournament, she was unsure if the shorter code was one she wanted to play alongside what she already knows.
“I feel like I’ll know for sure if I still want to pursue sevens, or if I just want to stick to 15s. So I’m just giving it a go.”
The Black Ferns Sevens have so far made two finals out of two in the 2025-26 World Rugby SVNS tournament, winning in Dubai before finishing as runners-up in Cape Town (both finals have been against Australia). The series starts up again at the end of January in Singapore.
At the NZ Rugby Awards she added two more milestones to her outstanding debut year. After being announced as World Rugby’s Women’s 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year, the 19-year-old was named as Black Ferns Player of the Year, and New Zealand Age Grade Player of the Year.
Sorensen-McGee has the rugby world at her feet, so it will be interesting to see what she chooses to play in 2026.
In February, Queenstown skier Alice Robinson became the first Kiwi to claim a world championship medal when she took home the silver medal in the giant slalom in Austria. Last weekend, she won her first Super G World Cup title at St Moritz.
And now she has her sights firmly set on February’s Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, where she’ll compete in both the giant slalom and super giant slalom.
It will be Robinson’s third Winter Olympics, after representing her country in PyeongChang in 2018 and Beijing in 2022. But she has never entered the event in such commanding form, after recently taking two World Cup giant slalom victories in a week, in Colorado and Quebec.
After Colorado, Robinson spoke fondly of wearing the silver fern and taking on the world.
“It’s always really special for me to represent New Zealand, especially in a sport like ski racing that is so dominated by North America and Europe, so I am really proud of that.”
Robinson now has six World Cup wins since her first at the age of just 17, and leads this season’s overall giant slalom standings from Austria’s Julia Scheib.
The next giant slalom event is at the end of December in Semmering, Austria, with another three scheduled in January before Robinson heads to Italy to look to make more history on the biggest stage of all.
The Silver Ferns were barely out of the news in the later part of 2025 following the well-documented coaching saga that saw head coach Dame Noeline Taurua being stood down because of issues in the environment.
Despite being reinstated after 51 days, Taurua didn’t join her side for their Northern Tour, with Yvette McCausland-Durie and Liana Leota remaining in charge.
A 12-match season saw a tough-fought 3-0 series win at home to South Africa in the Taini Jamison Trophy, before back-to-back losses to Australia in Melbourne and Sydney, both by 17-point margins.
The pressure was intense but the Silver Ferns bounced back at home, winning the next two tests at home, only to lose the Constellation Cup by one goal in Christchurch in the series decider across two seven-minute halves.
From there, the squad headed straight to the UK, for five tests in 11 days. After two convincing wins against Scotland in Glasgow, the focus turned to England. With two tests in London split, the series decider moved to the city of Manchester, where the Silver Ferns overcame a gastro bug that threatened to overpower the team between the second and third matches.
The starting seven in Manchester played the full 60 minutes to take the win 55-49. Vice-captain Kelly Jackson summed things up after the final whistle.
“It’s been a big three months for us, and we really just wanted to finish on a high.”
If it sounded like an understatement, that’s because it was. The Silver Ferns overcame arguably the most turbulent season in their history to finish with a 9-3 win/loss record, and now the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in July lie in wait.
