The impact of rugby sevens’ inclusion in the Olympic Games at Rio 2016 is evident wherever you look with the sport having been introduced to new audiences around the world, creating millions of new fans and inspiring youngsters to pick up a rugby ball and try to emulate the heroes they saw on sport’s biggest stage.
This is particularly true in Brazil where Isadora Cerullo, who played for the host nation in the Games, has experienced an increase in competitiveness at high performance level which, in turn, is helping to create a truly sustainable rugby environment in the country.
“Most of the people I think who watched the Olympics or who had even thought about rugby were probably invigorated by the Olympics,” she told World Rugby ahead of the HSBC Canada Women’s Sevens in Langford where Brazil are the invitational team.
“A huge proportion of the fans we have now had never heard of rugby before the Rio Olympics.
“The stadium was completely packed by the end of the rugby sevens tournament; everyone wanted to get a piece of the action. Afterwards a lot of girls were saying they had watched the Olympics and wanted to be a part of this. We are reaping the benefits now.”
The Olympic effect
Eshyllen Coimbra Cardoso is a perfect example of the Olympic effect.
She wasn’t a newcomer to rugby, having been introduced to the sport by the Rugby Para Todos social programme on the famous Copacabana Beach in Rio, but seeing the world’s best athletes up close during the Olympic Games made her see rugby as more than just something to play for fun.
Fast forward 21 months to today and Coimbra Cardoso is with the Brazil national team in Canada, preparing to make her international debut on the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series this weekend at the HSBC Canada Women’s Sevens in Langford.
The story of how the 17-year-old, who grew up in a favela near Copacabana Beach, found rugby and fell in love with the sport she says has changed her life is an inspirational one, and an example she hopes will show other youngsters in Brazil that hard work and dedication means anything is possible.
“I started playing for fun, I’d never even heard of the word rugby before,” she said. “I’d always played volleyball, I had two friends who started playing rugby and called for me to train with them but I didn’t know what it was so I thought I won’t go.
Love at first sight
“I had always played indoor volleyball, but then I switched to beach volleyball and where we trained was next to a programme for kids rugby, so everyday we would play volleyball and I would see people playing rugby until one day I decided I would try it.
“People often say it was love at first sight. I didn’t really know what I was doing but I just loved getting the ball and running with it. I started to learn more about the game through Rugby Para Todos and when I was 13 I committed myself to rugby by joining the Guanabara club.
“The Olympics inspired me even more because I went to the games, and that made me think, ‘I want to be a part of this team’ … but I never thought it would happen so fast. I’m still wrapping my head around saying something, working towards something and it is now happening.
“It is one thing to be in the stadium shouting ‘Go Brazil’ and investing your energy that way, but it is another thing when you pull on the jersey and have the responsibility of representing your country on the field. There are two sides to the coin and it is really crazy to think that I was on one side and now I have an opportunity to be on the other.”
That was the first step in a journey that has, in Coimbra Cardoso’s own words, changed her life.
A value-driven sport
Rugby is a sport driven by its traditional values of respect, integrity, passion, discipline and solidarity, something that appealed greatly to the teenager, who truly comes alive whenever she talks about what the sport has come to mean to her.
“What I love about rugby is the values. Even, though, volleyball and rugby trained on the same beach, for me it felt that when I stepped on the sand where rugby was played that it was a different beach,” she explained.
“There are very clear values attached to playing rugby, not just the traditional values like passion, respect and integrity, but also humility and united that are ingrained in the sport and the way it is played. Rugby has changed my life and has given me a lot of opportunities.”
Coimbra Cardoso isn’t the first player to progress through the Rugby Para Todos programme – which uses rugby as an educational tool – to a Brazilian national team in the 14 years since it began in Sao Paulo, with Rio following in 2013, but her story is one that will resonate with its current youngsters.
“When I was selected in the squad for the Canada I sent a message to the kids on the same social programme as me to say, ‘this is where I came from and look where I am now’.
“I told them it is a lot of hard work but it is not impossible to fulfil your dreams.”