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Mealamu made 132 appearances for the All Blacks between 2002 and 2015, including winning two World Cups. He has been a member of the Drugfree Sport New Zealand (DFSNZ) Board since 2017 and was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to rugby networks in 2016.
Wilson represented New Zealand as a Silver Fern from 1999 to 2007 and was captain for two years. She played a total of 79 tests and also played for the Southern Sting and the Otago Rebels.
The board will be chaired by leading sports lawyer Don Mackinnon. It will also include chair of Drug Free Sport NZ Tim Castle, and industry leader and company director Traci Houpapa, who in 2016 was named in the BBC’s top 100 most influential women in the world.
Award-winning company director Traci Houpapa. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Lyndon Bray, a former international rugby referee and former chief executive of the Tasman Rugby Union; Bobbi-Jo Clark-Heu, PWC New Zealand’s Manukura Cultural Manager; Rebecca McDonald, a retired para-swimmer who has represented New Zealand twice at the Paralympics and medical practitioner Lesley Nicol ONZM.
The commission was a Labour-led initiative adopted by the new coalition Government. Sport & Recreation Minister Chris Bishop said the commission’s purpose was to enhance integrity in sport and recreation to increase the safety and wellbeing of participants and fairness of competition.
Former international rugby referee Lyndon Bray. Photo: NZPA / Marty Melville
The commission would also take on the responsibility for giving effect to the World Anti-Doping Code in New Zealand, with existing agency Drug Free Sport New Zealand being folded into the new commission.
“I am confident that the inaugural board’s collective experience, knowledge and mana will ensure the Commission provides the best supports and protections for Kiwis who take part in recreation and sport at any level in New Zealand, from preschool swimming lessons to wearing the fern on the international stage,” Bishop said.
“Kiwis believe strongly that sporting competition should be fair and clean. New Zealand is rightly held in high regard internationally for our principled and ethical stance on competition that is free of performance-enhancing drugs, and I’m sure with the new commission established it will continue to be.”
