There’s always a sort of calm, and sense of acceptance, in the year following an Olympics.
The captains of the three women’s rugby sevens podium teams from the 2016 Rio Summer Games reflected on their journeys Thursday, before renewing on-field rivalries in the Canada Sevens on Saturday and Sunday at Westhills Stadium in Langford. It is the fifth of six stops on the 2017 HSBC World Series.
“Last year was really intense. Building up to the Olympics, the pressure was on,” said Canadian captain Ghislaine Landry.
That can take a toll, and more emotionally than physically.
“There is a lighter frame of mind this year and I am having more fun playing than I have ever had,” said Toronto’s Landry, based in Greater Victoria with the national team.
But there remains the pressure for Canada to perform at Westhills, especially after the disappointing fifth- and sixth-place Canada Sevens finishes the past two years.
“This weekend is going to be special because our fans were so much a part of our journey [to the Rio Olympics bronze medal], and we picked up a lot of new fans for Canadian rugby because of the Olympics and the medal,” said Landry.
“We learned from those [Canada Sevens] experiences the last two years at home … that sevens rugby can be so unpredictable and cruel.”
Australian captain Sharni Williams said she still almost can’t believe she gets to call herself an Olympic champion.
“It’s the pinnacle of sport … it’s surreal still to me,” she said of winning the inaugural women’s gold medal as rugby sevens made its Olympic debut at Rio.
“It’s changed women’s sport in Australia and changed our lives. They even made us OAMs [Order of Australia members]. We have left a pathway for girls to follow in rugby. We never had [female] role models in rugby. Now we are the role models.”
It won’t be long until Australia steps onto the pitch at another multi-sport event, this time as host, when women’s sevens makes its debut in the 2018 Commonwealth Games next April in Gold Coast. “We are building to the Commonwealth Games. It will be big for us because we are hosting and it will be a first for our sport in the Games,” said Williams, who hails from tiny Batlow, New South Wales.
The post-Olympics acceptance theme is represented by New Zealand, who went into Rio as the favourites but came away with the silver medal behind their great rival Aussies.
“We fell one step short of our goal … and were upset and gutted at the time … but the silver medal is still an incredible achievement and we are very proud of it,” Kiwi captain Tyla Nathan-Wong said.
“The whole Olympic experience was another step up and something I will never forget. I remember seeing Michael Phelps and Serena Williams in Rio and thinking: ‘Here I am on the same stage as them.’ We will look forward now to the Commonwealth Games and going across the ditch [Tasman Sea] to Gold Coast.”
But not before the 2017 World Series is completed.
“We love being in Victoria and playing in Langford … the crowds here are insane,” said Nathan-Wong, from Auckland, but who will have her own cheering section at Westhills Stadium because of family in Greater Victoria.
For Brazilian captain Luiza Campos, it is the calm after the sporting storm as her country strained to host the 2014 men’s soccer World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics back-to-back.
Brazilian athletes will leave the politics and finances of that for others to discuss. Their job was solely on the field of play.
“It was an amazing experience to be playing in front of family and friends at home in an Olympics,” said Campos. “There is more investment in rugby sevens now in Brazil because of it and the sport is growing with a lot more teams, and that is directly a result of the Olympics.”
The 2017 HSBC World Series championship is still up for grabs with New Zealand leading with 76 points after the first four tournaments in Dubai, Sydney, Las Vegas and Kitakyushu, Japan. The final tournament will be June 24-25 in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
Australia sits in second place with 66 points, Canada third with 64, Fiji fourth with 50 and Russia rounding out the top five with 46.
