​Australian Rugby Sevens Strike Weapon Emilee Cherry On The Olympics And The Road To Rio

Born in the rugged rugby league heartland of Roma, West Queensland, Australian Women's Sevens strike weapon Emilee Cherry plays it as tough as anyone. At 24 years old, weighing in at 78 kilos, she is a hard-hitting, line-running specialist with two World Series to her name as well as a 2014 rugby sevens player of the year gong. Her idol is fellow Roma product and rugby league legend, Darren Lockyer, formerly of the Brisbane Broncos, Queensland State of Origin and Australia Kangaroos, and she was a former touch football star before being poached to make a career out of the contact version of the sport.

"I am so incredibly lucky and fortunate to be in the position I am today," Emilee told Vice Sports. "Under five years ago I did not think that being a professional athlete as a career would have been possible.

Women's Sevens isn't a major growth sport. It's enrolment numbers are fledgling and it's still a long way from competing with more obvious female sports like tennis, netball, swimming, track and field, and so on. That might be about to change as Emily and the Australian Women's Sevens team head to Rio where they are expected to win gold.

The team's preparation began at the start of 2014 at the Sydney Academy of Sport in Narrabeen where the players put aside work and family commitments to bunk down, train had and make gold their only focus.

"For a lot of us, centralising in Narrabeen meant moving away from family and friends to start a new adventure. This was hard, and still is hard at times – not just losing the support network, but losing career jobs and goals was hard too. At the end of the day though, the choice was easy. We knew it would take a lot of hard work and effort but it would be worth it – this was the only way forward if we were going to continue to be competitive on the world stage," says Emilee.

Rugby Sevens is a free-flowing, free-running version of the more renowned and physical 15-a-side game. But the collisions are still there and with that the injuries.

"In any high-impact, high-speed sport there will always be injuries," says Emilee. "We all have endured a lot – some short-term, some long-term – and it's definitely a mental test to continue to apply yourself to training and set goals to keep you on track."

Their biggest rivals for the gold will be the ever-present All-Blacks, who have enjoyed a crushing superiority over Australia in the men's game. Emilee and her team might well be the only glimmer of hope in what is being heralded as one of the bleakest periods in Australian Rugby history. Even so, as Emilee points out, there is an obvious lack of support given to developing the women's side of the game back in Australia, with the country still yet to host a major Women's Sevens tournament.

"I've seen the profile of Women's Rugby Sevens grow and develop rapidly over the past four years. We have seen the centralisation of a professional program leap rewards for our on-field performance. But at this stage (this will hopefully be changing soon) we do not get the opportunity to play an international tournament within Australia, and that factor makes it hard to engage large crowds. The flow on effect of that is, if we aren't generating any income through crowds and support it is hard to engage with sponsorship as well. For the future I hope we can have an international tournament here in Australia soon and that, building on from the momentum from the Olympics, people come out and support us," she said.

In Rio Emilee's fate will be in her own hands and that of her teammates. A gold medal will likely push the sport into the realm of sponsorship and media coverage so deserved for the women who put their bodies on the line for their country.

"The sport is definitely heading in the right direction, but it's going to be a critical period over the next few years to turn the momentum of the Olympics into some real gains around increasing participation at grassroots level, and increasing exposure to high level of competition for senior and emerging players," she said.

"I hope the exposure leads to more young girls looking up to members of our team, as they are all incredibly talented and lovely, respectful young women. [This] gives us hope for the future that we are leaving the sport in a better place than when we found it," she said.