The Black Fern Sevens, the defending Olympic champions, defeated Canada in the gold medal match despite being pushed by a resilient Canadian side.
The team kept its composure in the second half, running in two tries to one. Co-captain Sarah Hirini made an important bust to set Waaka away, scoring in the corner to seal the victory.
The Black Ferns are the first women’s rugby team to win back-to-back Olympic golds, with Fiji’s men’s team being the only one to do so before today.
They are now part of an exclusive club to win three Olympic medals, with two golds from three games. This is an incredible return to the top for this team, as they won four World Series legs this year, but Australia took the overall title.
For most of this season, the Black Fern sevens were without legendary sevens player and co-captain Hirini, who went down with a ruptured ACL in the opening tournament of the World Series in Dubai (December). The skipper crammed what many would consider 9-12 months of recovery time into just seven months.
The result caps the end of the Black Fern sevens careers of Woodman-Wickliffe and Tyla King. Woodman-Wickliffe is now a six-time World Series champion, a two-time Olympic gold medallist, and a Commonwealth Games champion.
She was also named World Rugby Women’s Sevens Player of the Decade (2020), World Rugby Women’s Player of the Year (2017), and World Rugby Women’s Sevens Player of the Year (2015).
King leaves as a two-time Rugby World Cup Sevens champion, a Commonwealth Games winner, a two-time Olympic gold medallist, and a silver medallist in Rio. She was named Black Ferns Sevens Player of the Year in 2015 and World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year (2023).
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