We are pleased to announce the new Gymnastics NZ Selection Committee. The committee make selections for our pinnacle events (World Championships) and confirm nominations to the New Zealand Olympic Committee for both Commonwealth and Olympic Games.
Following a review of the selection process in 2024, changes were recommended to strengthen the structure and ensure that decisions are impartial, technically informed, and free from undue influence. The updated committee model includes core members, who provide consistency across all decisions, and discipline-specific representatives, who contribute technical expertise tailored to each gymnastics code.
The selection committee is as follows:
Chair: Ben McCormack
Ben is a sports executive with 15+ years of experience leading organisations through strategic growth and transformation. He has experience in selection as CEO of Northern Districts Cricket 2017-2025, and various other sport CEO roles, which have included selection. He has worked in gymnastics in his home state of Victoria so he has a broad understanding of the sport.
Legal Expert: Lucy Brittain
Lucy is a lawyer with recent experience delivering the Sport Integrity Commission’s Resolution Service. In this role she had exposure to governance and selection disputes across a range of sports at different levels and was required to apply legal knowledge of procedural fairness. Lucy brings a balance of legal expertise, dispute resolution experience, and passion for sport.
Code experts
Aerobics: Jennifer Groom
Jen was a former athlete at an international competitive level. She is a current senior judge, judging advisor on the technical committee, delivers Gymnastics NZ judging education, was a former TC athlete advisor, and was the first Athletes’ Council code rep for aerobics. Jen has a reputation as an independent and fair person within both the aerobics and gymnastics community.
Men’s artistic: Mark Jujnovich
Mark is an experienced technical committee member, 2000 – 2005, 2018 – 2021, was a Tri Star Gymnastics Club board member 2009 – 2015, and was sport manager for gymnastics at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Mark is very familiar with selection as an athlete, coach, and technical committee member and is an active contributor to the men’s artistic performance pathway.
Rhythmic: Summer Stewart
Summer has 20+ years coaching and judging rhythmic gymnastics at all levels bringing the necessary technical insight to rhythmic selections. Summer is passionate about providing a fair, honest, and ethical selection process, is currently coaching at Olympia Gymnastic Sports, and is a senior judge and former athlete.
Trampoline: Maree Calder
With over 20 years of involvement in trampoline gymnastics, Maree brings deep technical expertise and a commitment to fair, performance-based selections. Maree is a current FIG category 1 judge and has contributed to New Zealand’s high-performance selection process for the past decade. Her independent status—without athlete affiliations or conflicts of interest—positions her well to offer objective, evidence-based assessments aligned with international standards.
Women’s artistic: Nyssa Willcocks
Nyssa is a Barrister (17 years post-qualification experience including jury trials on behalf of the Crown, defended hearings, mediations for family court, and high-level court appointments to assist the court). Nyssa is also a FIG category 1 brevet judge achieving a top 25 in the world ranking, and is the only NZ judge with this category in Oceania. She is FIG coach qualified, is chair of the women’s artistic technical committee since 2022, and was competition advisor 2012-2022. She was also a judicial working group member 2016-17 and is a Gymnastics NZ presenter for judging courses.
Congratulations to all appointees, and thank you for your commitment to supporting fair and informed athlete selection at the highest level.