Sport champ emerges from Auckland steroid study

When Electra Kalaugher found out she was one of the babies through the follow-up to the Auckland Steroid Study 50 years ago she reached out to the researchers. Only half joking, she wondered if the steroid injection to boost development of premature baby lungs, might have gifted her a ‘superpower.’

Electra has been a national representative playing underwater hockey, a sport where strong lungs prove a decided advantage. “I was interested to know if there might be some correlation in a positive sense from a sporting perspective. I’d love to know how many people in the free-diving and underwater hockey communities might be premature babies.”

While that’s not something the researchers had considered, the word for now is that the life-preserving Auckland Steroid Study, since adopted as standard clinical practice, has not resulted in a generation with superior lung function.

Until she received the contact letter from the follow-up team, Electra hadn’t known she had been part of the Auckland Steroid Study. She had known of the steroid injection, but not the wider context.

Electra, who works as the head of primary industries for consultancy WSP, has a science background, with a doctorate in adapting dairy farms to climate change and has worked for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation.

She says of the study, “It’s really cool that there’s such a longitudinal effort. It’s very rare to be able to do something 50 years later. I think that’s fantastic.”

She knows she was seven weeks premature when her mother, then 20, was admitted to hospital. She was born a healthy 2.27kg and never experienced any developmental issues as a child.

“I have always felt like I’ve always had good lungs.” Premature birth has not been an issue in an athletic career that has seen her representing her country.

She discovered underwater hockey at the University of Otago. This sparked many years active at the highest-level in the sport. She represented New Zealand at the tripartite championship series in 1995 and the world championship in 1996.

She went on to be the coach of the first Italian men’s underwater hockey team and as the then wife of a Dutch national and living in the Netherlands, she also represented the Netherlands. In middle age, she has barely slowed down, competing for the New South Wales team in the Australian national championships this year. The sport remains a passion. During our interview we inspect her current snorkel, mask and flippers.

Electra says she has had a full and happy life, and today has three children and engaging work. She wants to know more about the Auckland Steroid Study. “It’s great to be part of that research. I’m just happy that I got to be in the group that got the injection.”