Shakira Baker (born 4 January 1992) is a New Zealand

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 ...

player. She has represented New Zealand in both the fifteens and sevens rugby.

Rugby career

2011

Baker made her provincial debut at 16 for Wellington before making her test debut for the

Black Ferns The New Zealand women's rugby union team, called the Black Ferns, represents New Zealand in women's international rugby union, which is regarded as the country's national sport. The team has won six out of nine Women's Rugby World Cup tournamen ...

in 2011 against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

2012

Baker was one of the 800 young women who attended the “Gold for Gold” Sevens trials in 2012 organized to identify talent with the potential to represent New Zealand in the Sevens competition at the Rio Olympics. At the trial she attended she was put through various fitness, rugby skills and character assessment activities. She was one of the most promising 30 who then attended a camp at Waiouru. This led to Baker playing both for the Sevens team as well as the Fifteen a side Black Ferns.

2013

In 2013 during a routine medical exam an electrocardiogram led to the discovery that she had a rare disorder of the heart's electrical system called

Long QT syndrome Long QT syndrome (LQTS) is a condition affecting repolarization (relaxing) of the heart after a heartbeat, giving rise to an abnormally lengthy QT interval. It results in an increased risk of an irregular heartbeat which can result in fainting, d ...

which can lead to dangerous heart rhythms, fainting and sudden cardiac arrest. In her case it can be triggered by physical activity. She was treated first with a sympathectomy, where the nerve that controls the heart rate was burned in order to prevent it going over a certain rate, before key-hole surgery was used to cut the nerve supply to her heart. As a result, she missed most of the 2013 rugby season. Despite the success of the treatment it is necessary to have a defibrillator close by whenever she plays. Her first game back for the Sevens was at Dubai at the end of 2013.

2014–23

Baker then incurred a knee injury early in 2014 from which she recovered in time to be named in the Black Ferns squad to the

2014 Women's Rugby World Cup The 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup was the seventh edition of the Women's Rugby World Cup, and the sixth held in Europe. The World Cup Final took place on 17 August. All of the pool games for the World Cup took place at the Centre National du R ...

. Baker was selected for the New Zealand women's sevens team to the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

. In 2022, she was named as a non-travelling reserve for the Black Ferns Sevens squad to the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

. In December 2022, She was confirmed as one of three final signings for

Hurricanes Poua Hurricanes Poua are a New Zealand women's professional rugby union team based in Wellington, New Zealand that competes in the Super Rugby Aupiki competition. History Team name On 7 February 2022, The Hurricanes revealed the new name of thei ...

for the

2023 Super Rugby Aupiki season The 2023 Super Rugby Aupiki season was the second season of Super Rugby Aupiki (known as Sky Super Rugby Aupiki for sponsorship reasons), a professional women's rugby union club competition organised by New Zealand Rugby. The competition ran from 2 ...

Personal life

She is related to

New Zealand Sevens The New Zealand national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens, Summer Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games. They have won a record twelve World Rugby Sevens Series titles. The team has been o ...

star Gilles Kaka. Of

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

descent, Baker affiliates to the

Ngāti Kahungunu Ngāti Kahungunu is a Māori iwi located along the eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The iwi is traditionally centred in the Hawke's Bay and Wairārapa regions. The tribe is organised into six geographical and administrative di ...

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

References

External links

* * * *
Black Ferns Profile
1992 births Living people New Zealand female rugby union players New Zealand women's international rugby union players Rugby sevens players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic rugby sevens players for New Zealand New Zealand female rugby sevens players New Zealand women's international rugby sevens players Ngāti Kahungunu people Rugby union players from Masterton New Zealand Māori rugby union players Rugby union wings Rugby union fullbacks Wellington rugby union players Olympic silver medalists for New Zealand Olympic medalists in rugby sevens Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Rugby sevens players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players for New Zealand Commonwealth Games gold medallists for New Zealand Commonwealth Games medallists in rugby sevens Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games {{NewZealand-rugbyunion-bio-1990s-stub