Judy Bailey interview:

Once a world champion on the squash court, Susan Devoy is now a champion for human rights. She talks to Judy Bailey about her obsession with winning, the defining moment that changed her view on everything, and making her long-distance marriage work.

Dame Susan Devoy – her obsession with winning and what has made her more mellow

Dame Susan Devoy has mellowed in the years since she ruled the squash courts of the world. The four-time World Open champion and eight-time winner of the elite British Open squash title says she’s embarrassed by her past “obsessive compulsive attitude to winning”.

Now New Zealand’s Race Relations Commissioner, in the late 1980s and early 90s she was the golden girl of New Zealand sport. She devoted her life to squash from the time she turned 17. “On the odd occasion that I lost, I was not good to be around,” she confesses ruefully.

She would practise for hours every day, along with long spells in the gym. “I prided myself on being the fittest because I felt I didn’t have as much natural ability as everyone else, but I loved training as much as competing. I thought every time I stepped on court I would win, because I’d done the prep.

“I’m a sports psychologist’s nightmare. Generally they tell you being motivated by fear is debilitating, but fear of losing is what motivated me more than the joy of winning.”

Susan was born in Rotorua in 1964 to Tui and John Devoy. She was the last of seven children and the only girl. With all those brothers it comes as no surprise she’s a self-confessed tomboy. “Mum was a beautiful sewer and took great pride in her appearance. I must have been a great disappointment to her. She would make me beautiful smocked dresses which I’d never wear, so they were always given away.”

Tui worked as the postmistress at the Whakarewarewa village and John was an accountant. He was company secretary for a couple of Maori Corporations and would often come home with a bag of mussels or half a sheep in appreciation of his work. The young Susan would spend many a weekend on various marae in the area.

The family were staunch Catholics and went to church every Sunday. The family lived in a state house. A room was added to accommodate all the boys. “There were six little beds, each with a cubby hole and a lamp. I think I slept with my parents until I was about three,” Susan remembers.

The Devoys were a generous and outgoing family. The children all played squash and lots of people were billeted at their house. “Our place was known as ‘Tui’s Diner’ because you could always get steak, eggs and chips and a bottle of beer in the early hours of the morning [after a night out],” Susan grins. Her mother was a larger than life character. “Most people will have a story about my mum. I’m more like her than I would care to admit,” she laughs, “very opinionated and always consider I’m right.”

Her father, she says, was a more gentle, softer person. Both of them loved people. “They were average,