Marijke Nel (born 17 December 1967) is a South African-born Canadian

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player and former women's international

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

fly-half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...

from

Richards Bay Richards Bay ( af, Richardsbaai) is a town in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is situated on a 30 square kilometre lagoon of the Mhlatuze River, which makes it one of the country's largest harbours. Richards Bay also has the deepest natural ha ...

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

, South Africa. She played rugby until 2006 when she moved to Canada to coach tennis. She is the granddaughter of the former

South Africa national rugby union team The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks (colloquially the Boks, Bokke or Amabokoboko), is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jerse ...

captain,

Philip J. Nel Philip Jacobus Nel (17 June 1902 – 11 February 1984) was a South African rugby player. The son of Piet Nel and Kitty Maritz, he was educated at Maritzburg College, matriculating as Head Prefect and captain of the rugby First XV in 1921. Nel e ...

Rugby

After time at

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

in the United States, Nel started playing rugby for

Wasps Ladies Wasps Women are a women's rugby union based in Acton, London, England. They were founded in 1984 and play in the Premier 15s. They are the women's team of Wasps FC, who are affiliated to Premiership Rugby team Wasps. They play their home matches ...

in England as a fly-half. She then moved back to South Africa to play for

Blue Bulls The Blue Bulls (known for sponsorship reasons as the Vodacom Blue Bulls) is a South African rugby union team that participates in the annual Currie Cup tournament. They are governed by the Blue Bulls Rugby Union and are based at Loftus Versfe ...

when competitive women's rugby started in South Africa. She made her international debut for the

South Africa women's national rugby union team The South Africa women's national rugby union team represents South Africa in women's international rugby union and is governed by the South African Rugby Union. They have appeared in three World Cups since their debut in the 2006 Women's Rugby ...

in 2005 during a tour to England. When South Africa travelled to Canada to take part in the

2006 Women's Rugby World Cup The 2006 Women's Rugby World Cup (officially IRB Rugby World Cup 2006 Canada) took place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The tournament began on 31 August and ended on 17 September 2006. The 2006 tournament was the third World Cup approved by the I ...

, Nel liked Canada so much she decided to settle there.

Tennis

Nel started her time in Canada as a tennis coach in

Bayers Lake, Nova Scotia Bayers is a former commune in the Charente department in southwestern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Aunac-sur-Charente.

before becoming the technical director for Tennis Nova Scotia. She continued to play tennis and in 2016 won the doubles at the Senior National Championships. This would have meant that she was eligible to represent Canada at the 2017 ITF Young Seniors World Championships; however she was not a Canadian citizen. Following a request to her local Member of Parliament to fast track her citizenship application, her

Canadian citizenship Canadian nationality law details the conditions in which a person is a national of Canada. With few exceptions, almost all individuals born in the country are automatically citizens at birth. Foreign nationals may naturalize after living in Ca ...

was granted in time to allow Nel to compete at the tournament in South Africa. During the tournament, she lost both her women's and mixed doubles matches as well as her singles tournament match in the first round however she did reach the final of the consolation bracket.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nel, Marijke 1967 births Living people People from KwaZulu-Natal South African female rugby union players White South African people South African expatriates in Canada Canadian female tennis players Wasps RFC players Blue Bulls players Rugby union fly-halves Kansas State University alumni