Natalie Wilson writes on former New Zealand representative swimmer Jeannie Milne's journey to the Manu World Champs.
Jeannie Milne doesn’t remember learning how to swim. Coming from a long line of swimmers and runners, the daughter of legendary coach Bruce Milne was raised as a true waterbaby, sparking a lifelong love of the water. As a member of the Manchester pre-Commonwealth Games swimming team alongside household-name contemporaries like Hamish Carter, Stephen Fergusson and Moss Burmester, in 2002 asthma complications cruelly cut short her career and limited her ability to spend much time in the pool at all. “It was hard. I’m a competitive person and all those years of work and knowledge and identity, over.”
Moving through the life-altering devastation, Milne found new value for herself and a sweet spot where her love of risk management and having fun overlapped, working in the surf lifesaving space at Taylor's Mistake. From here, life took another sharp redirection into a 15-year desk career in data and analytics, working across NZ, Singapore, Australia and Boston. It was rewarding work in a fascinating field and vastly more sustainable than the comparatively small window to peak in high-level sport, but the love of swimming never left her.
Settling back in Aotearoa full time, Milne made the decision not to return to the office chair (which she was frequently spending 70-80 hours a week in) and re-find that sweet spot. She made a fateful call to the Christchurch City Council in 2022 and almost immediately found herself back in the pool - this time guiding the little limbs of children. Three years later, the Milne work ethic sees her teaching Aquatic adult classes on the weekends, Water Skills For Life via Watersafe to school children during the week, and introducing the next generation of tiny waterbabies as young as six months old to the water. “I had taught managers & leaders in my corporate career but nothing compares to the immediacy of someone blowing bubbles and submerging successfully for the first time. It’s just so rewarding seeing their skills develop and their water confidence grow. I love that it’s a pathway for exercise and leisure and it’s not just for the kids… The adults see their children get up to equalling their own skill level and it motivates them to get back in the pool so their kids don’t overtake them. I see it all the time! It’s like a little ecosystem of motivation.”
It’s not just the parents who are spurred into upskilling by the kids either. “They were saying, ‘Miss! Can you teach us how to do a manu?!’ And I realised I couldn’t. My dad lived in Ōtāhuhu for a time and they had wharves and bridges over open water, which we had less of here in Christchurch. I kind of knew what Māngeres were and have been doing cannonballs forever but I didn’t actually know what a Manu was technically. So that’s how it started…”
Milne’s newfound goal of learning to manu coincided with the inaugural Z Manu World Champs Qualifier event at Jellie Park Pools early 2024 and with unwavering commitment to her students and that dyed-in-the-wool competitive streak, she signed up. Perhaps more impressive, the qualifier was due to take place on her 40th Birthday. “There were qualifiers on both Saturday and Sunday but for obvious reasons I thought it probably wasn’t the best idea to do it the morning after my 40th party. So on my birthday I just excused myself from my guests - and I had people who’d flown in from overseas - and said I had to do a thing and would be back in a couple of hours” Milne laughs.
While admitting to a fleeting pang of panic on seeing the stadium seating brought in for the huge crowd, and earning a gnarly butt-to-knee waterslap courtesy of a goofy first bomb, Milne surprised herself by qualifying for the Manu Champs finals. “The whole thing was a real eye-opener for me. I love it as an application for being active and I love that people are being rewarded for things that New Zealanders enjoy but wouldn’t normally be rewarded for. And that it does away with a bunch of stereotypes about who should be succeeding in physical activities. I definitely displace a lot more water than when I was competing at a high level!” She has noticed a lot more wāhine fine-tuning their technique ahead of the 2025 Manu Champs but the extra competition doesn’t phase her, “For me, I just want to be able to pass on to kids how to manu safely, without taking the fun out of it.”
Returning back home before her 40th party really kicked off, she explained that she’d been out popping manus and had qualified for the Z Manu World Champs Grand Final in Auckland. “My friends were all screaming, ‘What the hell?! You did what?! And the international guests were going, “Huh? What on earth is a manu?”
Jeannie will be competing in the Grand Finals for the Z Manu World Champs at Karanga Plaza in Auckland on Saturday, 1 March 2025. https://manuworldchamps.com/
Written by Natalie Wilson.
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