Terina Lily Te Tamaki (born 1 May 1997) is a New Zealand

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 its m ...

player.

Family and private life

Te Tamaki was born in 1997. Sevens player Isaac Te Tamaki is her elder brother. Teresa Te Tamaki is her cousin. Of

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

descent, Te Tamaki affiliates to the Te Arawa, Waikato and Ngāti Maniapoto

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

. She received her education at

Hamilton Girls' High School Hamilton Girls' High School is a state single sex secondary school located in central Hamilton, New Zealand. The school caters for students in Years 9 to 13 (ages 12 to 18). History Hamilton High School was opened to students on 10 July 1911, ...

Rugby career

Te Tamaki used to watch her elder brother play rugby for

Hamilton Boys' High School Hamilton Boys' High School is a boys' secondary school in Hamilton, New Zealand and is the largest secondary school in the Waikato region. The school was established as Hamilton High School in 1911 but was later split into separate boys' and gir ...

and thought the sport was not for her, as it was too scary and had too much contact. But the Girls' High coach, former Black Fern Crystal Kaua, convinced her to start the sport. It became her dream to make it to 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 ...

. Te Tamaki was contracted to the New Zealand women's sevens team in January 2016 and made her debut at the

USA Women's Sevens On October 4, 2012, the International Rugby Board, now known as World Rugby, announced the launch of a circuit now known as the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series, the women's counterpart to the World Rugby Sevens Series for men. The inaugural 2012� ...

. She was selected for New Zealand's women's sevens team to the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

. She won a silver medal with the team and broke a New Zealand record held since the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

by becoming the country's youngest female medallist. However, she only held the honour for 18 months until the record broken again by 16-year-old

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott Zoi Katherine Sadowski-Synnott (, born 6 March 2001) is a New Zealand Snowboarding, snowboarder, specialising in slopestyle and big air competitions. She won the gold medal in the Snowboarding at the 2022 Winter Olympics – Women's slopestyle, ...

at the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

. Te Tamaki was named as a travelling reserve for the Black Ferns Sevens squad to 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 ...

References

External links

* 1997 births Rugby sevens players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic rugby sevens players for New Zealand New Zealand female rugby union players New Zealand international rugby union players New Zealand female rugby sevens players New Zealand women's international rugby sevens players New Zealand Māori rugby union players Living people Rugby union hookers Te Arawa people Ngāti Maniapoto people Waikato Tainui people Olympic silver medalists for New Zealand Olympic medalists in rugby sevens Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics People educated at Hamilton Girls' High School {{NewZealand-rugbyunion-bio-1990s-stub