Emilee Jane Cherry (born 2 November 1992) is a former Australian

Rugby Union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

player. She represented Australia in Sevens Rugby and won a gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. Born in

Roma, Queensland Roma is a rural town and locality in the Maranoa Region, Queensland, Australia. It is the administrative centre of the Maranoa Region. The town was incorporated in 1867 and is named after Lady Diamantina Bowen (née di Roma), the wife of Sir ...

and playing for Toowoomba Bears at a club level, Cherry debuted for Australia in November 2012. As of December 2015, she had 14 caps. Cherry is a dual international, having represented Australia in

Touch football (rugby league) Touch (also known as touch football or touch rugby) is a variant of rugby league that is conducted under the direction of the Federation of International Touch (FIT). Though it shares similarities and history with rugby league, it is recognised ...

. Cherry was the 2013/14 Women’s Sevens World Player of the Year, her game lifting after Tim Walsh took over as Head Coach in September 2013. She scored the most tries in the series (33), scored the most points (195) and was the stand-out player during the 2013–14 IRB World Series season as she was named the 2014 World Sevens Player of the Year. Representative honours include Touch Football Australia, Aussie Pearls and Queensland. Cherry was a member of

Australia's Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by a ...

team at the

2016 Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro ...

, defeating

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in the final to win the inaugural Olympic gold medal in the sport. On 28 May 2021, she retired from rugby, citing injury and motherhood her reasons to retire.

References

External links

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Player profile at Australian Rugby
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cherry, Emilee 1992 births Australian female rugby union players Sportswomen from Queensland Australian female rugby sevens players Living people Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Rugby sevens players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic rugby sevens players of Australia Touch footballers Olympic gold medalists for Australia Olympic medalists in rugby sevens Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Australia international rugby sevens players Commonwealth Games medallists in rugby sevens Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Australia Rugby sevens players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games