Surprisingly, it’s the U.S. who leads the medal tally, having won back-to-back gold in the 1920 and 1924 Games, with France (1900) and Australia (1908) the other champions during rugby’s Olympic stint. Poor showings in Dubai and Canada were followed up by impressive performances in Brazil and their home leg in Atlanta which will give them hope of grabbing a medal in Rio this week.
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“We won’t talk too much about (a medal), but that’s obviously deep inside and, if we can achieve that for Fiji, we’ll be stoked”, said forward Rebecca Tavo, a former Australia captain who switched to Fiji a year ago to help them qualify for Rio.
“We’re really proud to be trailblazers in the sport. The players have turned up and are playing a great brand of rugby”, Gosper said.
“Our preparation was a dream”, Tavo said. “The newspapers and the TV have gone into overdrive. It’s just got everything”. “You’re up against the best and you’ve got to be the best to go out and get that gold medal”, Tietjens said.
Over 60 per cent of British gold medallists since 1992 have participated in BUCS sport, with 56 members of Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics competing for Great Britain at the World University Games. In 2014, the Kenya Rugby Union chose to disband due to internal conflicts.
Ryan says if you win, you come back as heroes; if you lose, it’s something else. There are plans to promote rugby at Secondary schools, and the Kenya Rugby Union is working hard to raise support and awareness about the women’s national team.
World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont has described the sport’s Olympics return in Rio as “a game-changer”.
Kenya will also have aspirations of a gold medal after winning their first leg on last season’s Sevens Series.
As the vice president of the game’s organizing body, he is the man who has already done so much for Argentinean rugby in driving it into the Rugby Championship and Super Rugby.
Fijiana barely rated a mention before the Olympic tournament, understandable after fading to eighth place following a promising start to the women’s world sevens series.
The Lionesses were invited to the Olympics after South Africa turned down their chance to play in Rio.
He ended a six-year stint at the helm of England’s sevens team amid frustration at “over-complication”, despite leading it to a first Rugby World Cup Sevens final in 20 years, and has no intention of allowing clutter to derail Fiji’s Rio campaign. “Obviously it’s 20 million times bigger, but in our heads, we’re just trying to keep it relaxed”, Caslick said after Australia’s opening 53-0 hammering of Colombia.
Did you know Earshot is also a podcast? They’re empowered to do their thing.
It did not, then, feel too outlandish when I found myself early this morning, after a 45-minute train ride out of the city, walking past a succession of Brazilian army facilities – including one whose emblem appeared to be a snake smoking a pipe – on my way to witness Olympic history being made.
But in the end, pride in Fiji and in their own skills will be the players’ biggest motivators.
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That would be fitting for a country that has been better known for its proficiency in Winter Games but one that should get more credit for what it’s done to advance the cause of women in sport – both winter and summer – especially over the past two decades.
