Samantha (Sam) Harrison (born 29 August 1991) is a New Zealand

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

player. She has competed for the New Zealand women's national field hockey team (''the Black Sticks Women''), including for the team at the

2010 Commonwealth Games The 2010 Commonwealth Games (Hindi: 2010 राष्ट्रमण्डल खेल), officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, was an international multi-sport event that was held in Delhi, India, f ...

and the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

Career

Born in Whangarei to Steve and Zanna Harrison, Samantha is the second of three sisters, between Charlotte and younger sister Anita. Samantha attended Whangarei Girls' High School before moving to Diocesan School for Girls in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

in Year 11 (Form 5). Harrison was first selected for the Black Sticks Women in June 2009, along with ten other players as the Black Sticks squad was overhauled following its last-place finish at the

2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

, joining her older sister

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...

, who had been in the team since October 2005. She played her first official match for the Black Sticks on 3 July 2009, against

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

in her hometown of Whangarei, as part of a series of games against Argentina and China. She was part of the New Zealand team that played at the

, winning a silver medal. She then participated at the 2012 Summer Olympics, where New Zealand finished fourth. , Harrison is studying psychology at the Auckland University of Technology on Auckland's North Shore. In November 2012, Harrison was demoted from the Black Sticks national squad to the development squad for the 2013 year, after national coach Mark Hager felt she was suffering from

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. At the time, Harrison spent three months in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

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, coaching hockey at The Leys School. At the

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that were held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

, Harrison was part of the New Zealand team that won the women's competition. Despite Samantha being two years younger and three centimetres (1 in) taller than her sister Charlotte, once the two competed together for the Black Sticks, their similarities in appearance became apparent and were often mistaken for each other by commentators and match officials. At club level, Harrison is a member of the Southern Districts Hockey Club, based in

Papatoetoe Papatoetoe is a suburb in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the largest suburb in Auckland by population and is located to the northwest of Manukau Central, and 18 kilometres southeast of Auckland CBD. Papatoetoe has the unofficial title of Auckland ...

, Auckland. In the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

, she is a member of the Auckland Fury women's team.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Samantha 1991 births Living people Field hockey players from Whangārei People educated at Whangarei Girls' High School New Zealand female field hockey players Olympic field hockey players for New Zealand Field hockey players at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Field hockey players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games silver medallists for New Zealand Commonwealth Games medallists in field hockey Female field hockey midfielders Female field hockey forwards Commonwealth Games gold medallists for New Zealand Field hockey players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games 20th-century New Zealand women 21st-century New Zealand women Medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games