"... I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." — Doctrine and Covenants 84:88
INVERCARGILL, New Zealand — These words rang true for squash champion Leilani Marsh Rorani as she won double gold medals for New Zealand at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England. At the games, 72 nations competed in individual and team sports.
Sister Rorani and her partners were successful in both the women's and mixed doubles events after what was nothing short of a miraculous preparation.
The game of squash is similar to racquetball and is also played on a four-walled court with a smaller ball made of rubber. Leilani was introduced to squash by her parents at age 8, in her home town of Hamilton, New Zealand, where both her parents were local squash champions. She went on to have a highly successful international career on the women's professional circuit spanning 10 years.
"For seven of those 10 years I wasn't active in the Church," she said. "It wasn't until I listened to the Spirit prompting me to return to Church that I achieved the goals I was working towards all those years. No matter how hard I trained, I could never get there until the Lord was on my side."
In December of 2000, she tore her Achilles tendon, an injury specialists said would take at least nine months from which to recover. This, however, didn't fit into her plans to play for her country the following July, just seven months away.
"Through living the Word of Wisdom, and a priesthood blessing, I was able to get back on the court in five months," she said. "I knew from experience that there wasn't enough time to get back to the level I needed to be at to even compete with the other girls. I only had two months. I spent one learning how to walk again and the other learning how to play again, but I was never really 100 percent."
She and her husband, Blair, were married in the New Zealand Temple three weeks before she traveled to the Games. "We went to the temple every day for the final month, and knew the Lord would make up the difference."
In addition to her gold medals, Sister Rorani was also the two-time British Open Champion and prior to her injury was the world No. 1 player. She is now retired, and the mother of 11-week-old Joseph Kawiti. She serves in the Primary presidency and as a branch missionary in the Invercargill 1st Branch.
