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A Tall Fern star remains in an induced coma and her family reveal they feared she would die after suffering critical injuries in a horror car crash nine days ago.
Georgia is based in Australia. She flew back to visit her Canterbury-based family the moment she learned of her sister’s situation.
Most of Mary’s family has come together to connect and support each other over the last nine days, something that stems from a strong family bond.
“We really did lean on each other hugely, especially in that first week,” said Georgia.
“Then we’ve been pretty overwhelmed by the support from around the community - around the world really - she’s travelled everywhere and met so many people.”
When Georgia thinks about her sister, she says the first thing all her siblings own is Mary is the favourite.
“You’re not meant to have favourites, but she easily is as she’s so different to us.”
The difference isn’t just physical, with the basketball star stretching to six feet tall compared with her shorter siblings, but in terms of personality.
She’s known by her family as an individual with a calming and peace-making attitude towards life, taking everything at face value and never bad-mouthing others.
Growing up, it was clear Mary had a competitive side - being the second youngest of six meant she had to learn how to win without the physical edge.
“It was easy to beat her when you’re six or seven years older, but she’d find a way to compete,” said Georgia.
When Georgia thinks about her sister, she says the first thing all her siblings own is Mary is the favourite. Photo / File
“She’s clever, she has a real sports intuition and would work out how to beat you even if you’re ten times stronger. And then she did grow bigger and stronger.”
Georgia reminisced over watching her sister fly down Auckland’s One Tree Hill on a plastic motorbike, using her bare feet to brake.
“She had no awareness of pain.”
But it was the drive and hunger inside of her that pushed her to go further in sports than her siblings, some of which already played highly competitively.
As Georgia remembers, Mary’s path to professional basketball wasn’t straightforward. She had talent but was never considered a gifted prodigy, her success was self-made.
After attending Rangiora High School, Goulding spent a year at Gillette College in Wyoming before being recruited by Fordham University.
“She had to work really hard, even in university she did it the hard way by sitting on the bench and listening to coaches, finding her playing style,” she said.
“She had that intuition for putting her body in the right places and doing off-the-ball things only people in the sport could recognise.”
Mary grew into a fine defensive player, built from previous team mentalities that good defence will win you games.
She travelled around the world, playing in Sweden for a time before competing in the WNBA - which Georgia said was a hard road for her sister.
“It’s hard to live in the middle of nowhere,” she said.
Goulding remains in intensive care at Christchurch Hospital and is battling critical injuries after the crash in Rangiora. Photo / George Heard
“She wasn’t a stand-out player but she didn’t turn away, and eventually she became an integral member of the squad.”
Mary made her debut for the Tall Ferns in 2019 and made nine appearances for the national team.
There’s an admiration from Georgia for how Mary applied herself, going from an outsider to one of the Tall Ferns’ integral defensive members.
“Right up until the accident, I was talking to her trainer and she was working on her shooting technique, she was still refining things. That’s something that always impressed me - I love sport and played at a high level, but I never had the same drive that she had.”
Mary’s family rode her highs and lows, cheering her on as her sporting career went from strength to strength. Yet she would still find time to help those around her, intentionally going out of her way to serve and spend time with those in her community.
“If there was a moment of doubt or frustration, one of us would always be there to support her either in person or we’d be sending her messages constantly,” said Georgia.
Messages of support have flooded in from across the world. In Perth, a fundraiser was organised in her honour by one of her former teams.
Georgia would receive texts from people she’d never met, telling her they’d met Mary at some point and she’d impacted them in some way.
The family is processing the situation in different ways, but the mindset is if anybody has the strength to recover, it’s Mary.
“[She’s] the strongest person we know - physically, mentally, the optimism comes from the fact she’s got it tough, the whole world is praying for her and we’ll be part of that.”
