Try, try again
Michaela Blyde is the third of five nominees for the 2018 Taranaki Daily News Person of the Year. Helen Harvey has interviewed each of the finalists. The winner will be announced on New Year’s Day.
Michaela Blyde has had quite a good year. The Black Ferns Sevens won the World Cup and Commonwealth Games Gold. Blyde was named World Rugby Women’s Sevens Player of the Year for the second year running and Black Ferns Sevens Player of the Year at the New Zealand Rugby Awards. To top it off she scored her 100th try.
But calling her the best women’s sevens player on the planet isn’t something that sits well with the 22-year-old.
‘‘There are so many more women who have much more talent than me.
‘‘I can think of 10 people off the top of my head that are better rugby players than me. And the majority of them are in my team.’’
Blyde, of New Plymouth, is one of the nominees for Taranaki Daily News Person of the Year
because she has been the best in the world at her sport for the last two years.
Last year, when she first won World Rugby Women’s Sevens Player of the Year, it was like the cherry on top of a great year.
‘‘Hearing my name I thought ‘holy moly’, but looking back it was definitely the best season I have had of my career. I’d played really, really well that season.’’
At this year’s awards, though, she thought she was just there to make up the numbers.
‘‘Because I didn’t have as good a season as I did last year. Hearing my name again was more than a surprise. But to be able to be nominated alongside Portia [Woodman] and Gossy [Sarah Goss] is an honour.’’
She constantly gives credit to her teammates, saying all she does is catch the ball and run hard. ‘‘The amount of work and talent that the girls on our team who work in the middle do creating space for me . . . They’re the reason I shine the way I do.’’
But she didn’t always shine and her time playing sevens can be split into a career of two halves – before and after the Olympic Games in 2016.
Sporty and competitive, the former New Plymouth Girls’ High School student had always wanted to compete at an Olympics. When she was young her goal was to compete in the 100 and 200 metre races.
By 2016 she had the opportunity to go to Rio with the Black Ferns Sevens. But it didn’t go her way, she says.
‘‘I was a travelling reserve. And no athlete trains that hard for four years, and moves away from their family, to be a travelling reserve.’’
She didn’t stay in the Olympic Village and spent most of the time sitting in the stands.
‘‘It sucked,’’ she says bluntly. So she made the decision to scrap the first four years of her career and start again. New coach Allan Bunting moved her from
strike prop to wing and she hasn’t looked back.
Her first tournament after the Olympics was in Dubai. Blyde scored the most tries and won Player of the Tournament.
From there on she had a good momentum going into the following tournaments, she says.
‘‘I had confidence. I had people around me who were helping me be the rugby player that I wanted to be.’’
And that has continued in 2018 with Blyde scoring her 100th try.
‘‘It’s taken me six world series, so it’s about time. Before the Olympics in 2016 I had scored maybe 12 tries. After the Olympics I have had more confidence when I carried the ball.’’
But while Blyde didn’t make it onto the podium at the Olympics, she did at the Commonwealth Games in April, which was a dream come true, she says.
‘‘To compete at my first pinnacle event so close to home, my parents in the stands, was incredible. It was amazing feeling running out in front of so many people. It may have been in Australia, but felt like a home crowd for us because so many family came over to watch. And to be able to play against Australia in Australia in the final was what we were hoping for.’’
The reality of receiving the medal and hearing the national anthem was 10 times better than she had imagined it as a child, she says. ‘‘Standing beside the podium, about to stand up, and seeing my parents in the crowd I just started bawling my eyes out. Extreme emotion of pride rushes through your body. It felt like a dream. It felt surreal.’’
While that was awesome, she is determined to stand on an Olympic podium. ‘‘I’m still not content. I’m not finished. I still want to get an Olympic gold.’’
And all going well she could have two chances – in 2020 and 2024. ‘‘If I was to retire now I wouldn’t be happy with myself. I want to get that medal at the Olympics first.’’