Shiray Kaka (née Tane; born 26 March 1995) is a New Zealand rugby sevens player. She won a gold medal with the

Black Ferns sevens The New Zealand women's national rugby sevens team represents New Zealand in the World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens, Summer Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games. The team has participated in all rounds of the World Rugby Wom ...

team at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Rugby career

2013–2016

Kaka made her international debut for the

at the

2013 Dubai sevens The 2013 Dubai Sevens was the second tournament within the 2013-2014 Sevens World Series. It was held over the weekend of 29–30 November 2013 at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Format The teams were drawn into four pools of ...

. Along with

Michaela Blyde Michaela Blyde (born 29 December 1995) is a New Zealand professional rugby sevens player and Olympic gold medalist. Her mother, Cherry Blyde, became the first female president of the Taranaki rugby football union in 2022. Personal life Her you ...

she was one of the two traveling reserves for the 2016 Rio Olympic team, which required them to stay in accommodation outside of the Olympic village away from the rest of the team.

2021

In 2021, Kaka was part of the Black Ferns sevens squad that won a gold medal at the delayed Tokyo Olympics.

2022

Kaka was named in the Black Ferns Sevens squad for the

2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England bet ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

. She won a bronze medal at the event. She was a member of the side that finished as runner-up at the Sevens Rugby World Cup held in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

, South Africa in September 2022.

2023-24

In the quarterfinal against Great Britain on 4 May 2024 at the Singapore she ruptured the

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are also called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation ...

(ACL) in her right knee. This injury ruled her out being available for the Grand Final tournament of the 2023-24 season in Madrid and the Paris Olympics. This was her third ACL injury.

Personal life

In 2019, She was living in Japan where she was studying to be a dog trainer and starting a business in adventure dog walking. Her husband is former All Black Sevens star

Gillies Kaka Gillies Gene Kaka (born 28 May 1990 in New Zealand) is a New Zealand Olympian rugby union player for the Hino Red Dolphins. Career Kaka plays for the New Zealand National Rugby Sevens team. He made his debut at the Wellington Sevens. Kaka ha ...

. In December 2023 Kaka was awarded a Prime Minister’s Scholarship internship, which she intended to use to study media.

References

External links

* * * 1995 births Living people New Zealand Māori rugby union players New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand female rugby sevens players New Zealand women's international rugby sevens players Olympic rugby sevens players for New Zealand Rugby sevens players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for New Zealand Olympic medalists in rugby sevens Rugby sevens players at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for New Zealand Commonwealth Games medallists in rugby sevens Medallists at the 2022 Commonwealth Games {{NewZealand-rugbyunion-bio-1990s-stub