Pelite reveals team's gold-en goal

Evania Pelite secured her moment in this nation's sporting history when she gave Australia the lead in the first Olympic Women’s Rugby 7s final five years ago.

Now the former Hercules Road School student who played rugby league for Deception Bay Raiders (now Moreton Bay Raiders), is chasing her second Olympic gold.

Pelite, 25, is one of five members of Australia’s winning squad in Rio, to be selected for the Tokyo Games where they are in a pool with the US, China and Japan.

Their toughest opponents may be the US which has finished in the top six of all four World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series since Rio.

“Defending our Olympic gold medal has been the team’s goal since Rio and we have continued to work hard for that,” she told Rugby AU.

Really proud

Pelite said she had been “really proud” how the team rallied together during the pandemic and tackled the challenges it posed for sport.

The former St Columban’s College, Caboolture student left Deception Bay for Sydney five years ago and made her Australian rugby sevens debut at 17.

Four years later Pelite helped Australia to gold in the Rio Olympics beating New Zealand 24-17 in the final and won silver in the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Due to the pandemic Pelite played in the NRLW competition last year with New Zealand Warriors, who were based in Australia.

Women’s Olympics Rugby Sevens for matches at Tokyo Stadium July 26-31:

Pool A: New Zealand, Russia, Great Britain, Kenya

Pool B: Canada, France, Fiji, Brazil

Pool C: Australia, United States of America, China, Japan

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