The U.S. girls’s rugby workforce made America proud by bringing residence the bronze on the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The rugby sevens’ bronze medal match in opposition to Australia on July 30 shocked viewers, with the workforce scoring a game-winning conversion because the clock ran out.
Standout Sammy Sullivan, 26, introduced an additional air of patriotism to the rugby subject.
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Along with being an Olympic medalist, Sullivan additionally serves as a captain within the United States Military, main followers on social media to name her “Captain America.”
Sammy Sullivan, No. 4 of Staff United States, celebrates as she runs in to attain her workforce’s second attempt in the course of the Girls’s Pool C match in opposition to Brazil on day two of the Olympic Video games on July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (Hannah Peters/Getty Pictures)
In an on-camera interview with Fox Information Digital, Cpt. Sullivan expressed her pleasure about clinching a medal at this 12 months’s video games after beginning her rugby profession at West Level in 2016.
“The Military, to me, is the final word workforce.”
“I spent my full 4 years there taking part in rugby,” she stated.
“It is the place I first found rugby, as a result of I performed soccer my complete life.”
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Sullivan, who’s presently based mostly in Chula Vista, California, revealed that she “all the time had a name to serve,” as her dad was a Particular Forces Inexperienced Beret.
“Seeing the extent of bonds and connections that he had with folks at work simply actually appealed to me, as somebody who all the time thrived in a workforce sport surroundings,” she stated.
Sullivan’s brother, left, and father, middle, each served within the Military. (Sammy Sullivan)
“The Military, to me, is the final word workforce, so I knew I all the time needed to enter that, which is why I selected the army academy.”
From West Level, Sullivan was commissioned as an engineer officer and was finally stationed at Fort Carson in Colorado as a route clearance platoon chief, which she described as “essentially the most enjoyable time of my life.”
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Whereas serving, she continued driving to Denver 3 times per week to maintain up with rugby.
“Within the background, I had this different dream of going to the Olympics as a rugby sevens participant,” she stated.
Sammy Sullivan is pictured with the U.S. Military rugby workforce after a win. (Sammy Sullivan)
When USA Girls’s 7s Head Coach Emilie Bydwell known as Sullivan to debate taking part in for the workforce, she utilized to the World Class Athlete program, which permits Military troopers to compete and serve their nation as Olympians.
“Getting accepted into the World Class Athlete program was an enormous honor for me,” she stated.
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This system has allowed Sullivan to compete and prepare full-time with the USA rugby workforce for the final two years, in the end main her to the Olympics.
The now-Olympic bronze medalist stated that making the rostrum along with her workforce “doesn’t really feel actual” and that she’s “nonetheless using the excessive.”
Staff United States celebrates victory as they pose for a photograph after the Girls’s Rugby Sevens Quarter Remaining match between Staff Nice Britain and Staff United States on July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (Michael Steele/Getty Pictures)
“And [I’m] actually lacking my teammates,” she added. “I really feel like I’ve separation nervousness from them, as a result of we have labored so onerous and spent each day with one another for years.”
Sullivan’s different teammates, her fellow Military brothers and sisters, have shared their help. “They’re simply so past pleased with me,” she stated.
From subject to subject
Sullivan spoke about how being lively within the Military interprets to her efficiency on the rugby subject.
“[Rugby is] a fight sport. There’s a variety of adversity that occurs on the sphere, however it’s that kind of adversity that brings teammates and sisters (that is what I name them) nearer collectively,” she stated.
“And that is precisely what occurs within the Military, too.”
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“You undergo these adversarial conditions collectively, whether or not it is subject coaching in sub-zero climate, or in the end deploying and serving our nation – it’s one thing that not lots of people on this earth can say they do,” she continued.
“I am actually proud to be part of that neighborhood that serves our nation.”
Kristi Kirshe No. 12 and Alev Kelter No. 5 carry Sammy Sullivan No. 4 of america Girls’s Nationwide Staff for a lineout throughout a girls’s Pool C match between France and USA on July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (Alex Ho/ISI Images/Getty Pictures)
Via rugby, Sullivan stated she’s realized quite a bit about management and easy methods to be resilient in powerful conditions.
“Rugby has taught me quite a bit about myself, how I deal with stress, and has made me a greater officer,” she stated.
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Sullivan stated her favourite a part of taking part in rugby on the worldwide stage is saluting the American flag earlier than a finals recreation whereas the nationwide anthem performs.
“Getting to point out my patriotism in that approach — and the way proud I’m to not solely signify my nation as an athlete, but additionally as a United States Military soldier — brings tears to my eyes each time,” she stated.
‘How thrilling’
This 12 months’s video games have introduced within the largest variety of feminine athletes in historical past, with an equal 50/50 break up between women and men, based on the Olympics.
U.S. girls’s rugby has additionally made historical past, as Emilie Bydwell grew to become the primary feminine rugby head coach to win an Olympic medal.
Head coach Emilie Bydwell of Staff United States watches a Girls’s Medal Semi Remaining rugby 7 match between New Zealand and america on July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (Alex Ho/ISI Images/Getty Pictures)
“I really feel like individuals are lastly beginning to see simply how thrilling girls’s sports activities could be and the way a lot emotion is put into it, how a lot grit, how a lot aggression and energy,” Sullivan stated.
“It is OK to be robust and highly effective and female and delightful – and all these issues can occur directly.”
For younger ladies at the moment, Sullivan stated she hopes the U.S. girls’s rugby workforce can illustrate how “taking part in like a lady is the way you wish to play.”
Discovering an outlet
Even Olympians have to blow off some steam, particularly when thrown into high-pressure competitors.
“You can begin happening a very darkish path when your complete id and your complete success is wrapped up in your sport, and I believe even Olympians really feel that,” Sullivan stated.
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Outdoors of rugby, she has shared her love of constructing with Legos as her personal outlet, to assist her disconnect from the game.
“Legos for me is one thing that helped me to not put my full id into rugby,” Sullivan informed Fox Information Digital.
United States’ Sammy Sullivan reacts as she joins her teammates after they gained the ladies’s bronze medal Rugby Sevens match between america and Australia on the 2024 Summer time Olympics, on July 30, 2024. The U.S. gained the sport 14-12. (AP Photograph/Vadim Ghirda)
“I might encourage each younger, previous and new athlete on the market to search out one thing that sparks your pleasure exterior your sport.”
Because the Paris Olympics involves an in depth, Sullivan stated she has the 2028 Los Angeles video games in view.
Sammy Sullivan No. 4 of Staff United States celebrates following victory in the course of the Girls’s Rugby Sevens Bronze medal match between Staff United States and Staff Australia on July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (Cameron Spencer/Getty Pictures)
Within the meantime, the Military captain hopes to offer again to the army neighborhood and share her story with different service members and recruits who wish to “pursue each goals.”
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“The Military does such an excellent job of supporting us in all of our endeavors,” she stated. “Any job you’ll be able to consider, there is a approach the Military can tie into that.”
“I am actually proud to be part of that neighborhood that serves our nation.”
Sullivan added that she hopes folks “come out in droves” to look at the rugby workforce’s video games all through the season, since they’ll want “all of America’s help to go for gold in 2028.”
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“This sport means a lot to me and this workforce means a lot to me,” she stated.
“So long as they’re going to have me, I will hold taking part in.”
