Naya Tapper, one of the great names of American rugby, is retiring after the Olympic Games in Paris. With the women’s Eagles sevens team, she has a good chance of leaving with a medal – possibly precious gold.
Tapper announced her decision said that, to put it “as simply as possible”, I am preparing for her “second Olympic Games as co-captain, while at the same time planning my transition from the sport [has been] a whirlwind of trying to make sure I enjoy these final moments with my team, while at the same time balancing the importance of performing at a gold medal level with making sure I still have a job after all of this.”
Such is life as a rugby Olympian: big challenges, small financial rewards. Like most Americans, Tapper didn’t grow up with the sport. An All-American track and fielder in high school, she discovered rugby in college and became a winger, played sevens for eight years, including 15-a-side internationals, and now, at 29, is about to play her second Games.
“The preparation has been really good,” Tapper told the Guardian before flying to Tours for a pre-Games camp. “We brought in the US under-18 high school boys’ team so we could train against faster, different, step-up players. It’s really increased our field knowledge, our skills, our impact on defence and attack, going up against people who are faster, stronger, step-up than you.”
Like Kevon Williams, the men’s team captain who is also going to a second Olympics with a team that has a tougher pool draw, Tapper said Paris would feel in some ways like her first real experience of the Games, as Tokyo 2020 was played a year later, without stadium crowds, due to Covid.
“Knowing that we actually have fans and supporters cheering us on makes it a lot more exciting,” Tapper said. “Knowing that my family is going to be there makes it a lot more inspiring. Knowing that it’s really important that we do well there to put our organization in a good position heading into Los Angeles in 2028.
“A lot of pressure, but that’s important. And so we hope to go there and get that gold medal and have the full experience this time. I’m looking forward to it.”
Looking further ahead, Tapper – nickname, “Naya on Fiya” – will continue to work on the Naya Tapper Scholarshiprun with OMBAC Wallabies Youth Rugby, from San Diego, to provide financial assistance to young players.
Asked to pick Eagles to watch in Paris, first in the group stage against Japan, Brazil and France, Tapper chose Ilona Mahera big attacker with a big social media presenceand “myself, Sammy Sullivan, Kristi Kirshe… And I want to say, as far as a new face, I think Stephanie Rovetti is going to shock some people with her speed.”
Rovetti is a crossover athlete, from “D1 basketball at BYU. She came here at an older age, which is normal for girls to come in, and she managed to get a spot on the Olympic roster. I think she’s going to do incredible things.”
Williams has done incredible things for the Eagles men’s team for as long as Tapper has done the same for the women’s team. He played college football – this is his second Games. At 33, it may be his last, unless he, like the great Eagles flyer Perry Baker, two times world player of the yearWilliams, now heading into his third Olympic Games, has decided to continue playing into his late thirties.
In Paris, Williams will lead a team that will take on a difficult draw: first the French, then Fiji and Uruguay. Get through those and New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina will probably be lurking in the knockouts.
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Fiji won gold in the heptathlon at the 2016 and 2021 Olympics, but the host nation could pose the biggest challenge this time around. In the Stade de France They will field Antoine Dupont: the best player in the world in rugby, who is used to leading Les Bleus in a team of 15 players in that daunting arena.
“I don’t want to say take it with a pinch of salt,” said Williams, who certainly won’t when he faces Dupont at scrum-half. “France are the best team in the world at the moment. We know that when we’ve lost to them we’ve made mistakes and when we’ve beaten them we’ve done well.
“The man that people call the best player in the world will be in that team and without a doubt he’s a great player. But we back ourselves and see certain opportunities and we understand in this game that sometimes it’s just about getting one more try than they get against you.”
Sevens last seven minutes each. Much, including Olympic gold, can depend on the absurd bounce of an oval ball.
Dupont has enjoyed resounding success with his sevens switch, but another 15s great, Australian flanker Michael Hooper, did not make the cut. Asked for his thoughts on big names chasing Olympic glory without playing the sevens circuit year in, year out, Williams said: “It’s a bit hit or miss. I think it depends on the position.
“Obviously 15s players, when they go into the game, they get idolized, they get all the hype … but they’re two separate games. Dupont has done a great job of showing he can be a man of both games and you’ve got other players who have come in and performed well, who can fit the different fitness levels … So to be able to go into that space and prove you can do it? More power to you.”
The U.S. men have improved in the Olympic sevens, from ninth in Brazil in 2016 to sixth in Japan. The women were fifth in Rio and sixth in Tokyo. Now on to Paris.