How ‘rubbish’ Olympic medal inspired New Zealand star Ruby Tui’s rush to greatness

Ruby Tui “felt like a pirate” when she was presented with her “super shiny” Olympic gold in 2021, but it is the shabby silver from 2016 that serves as a permanent reminder of the resilience and dedication she applied to reach the top of the podium.

A rugby sevens winner with New Zealand in Tokyo, and arch-champion of a format that “is one of the greatest teachers of life … and provides the fittest and fastest rugby on the planet”, Tui returned home desolate after losing the Rio Games final to Australia.

“But we got such a warm welcome and for months I went to every school I could, and let every kid hold the medal,” Tui told the South China Morning Post. “It’s pretty heavy, so lots of them dropped it and it has lots of dings and scratches. It looks rubbish, but I see it and think, ‘It’s not about how many times you fall over, it’s what you do when you get up’.”

Drawing inspiration from UFC star Ronda Rousey’s quote about aiming to develop the strength to “win every match twice on my worst day”, Tui and her Black Ferns colleagues invested every ounce of themselves to claim their “gleaming” golds in the Japanese capital.

“We were really pushed by the likes of [semi-final opponents] Fiji; they’d been together for four months and it was like playing RoboCop,” Tui, 34, said. “But in any walk of life, if you have your systems, and have honest conversations, it’s written for you.”

Tui would be instrumental the following year, when New Zealand won the Women’s Rugby World Cup, dramatically ending England’s 30-match unbeaten run in a final that attracted more than 42,000 fans to Eden Park in Auckland.