England rugby star Ellie Kildunne no longer has to choose between her Olympic dream and a full-time job.
The 24-year-old saw her hopes of reaching the Games dashed ahead of Tokyo 2020 due to changes in the funding of the sevens format. With a coveted full-time contract on offer in the 15s game, Kildunne chose to press for a maiden World Cup appearance and temporarily shelved her Team GB ambitions.
“There were a lot of tears and a lot of guilt and heartbreak in that moment,” she admitted. “It was the biggest heartbreak I’ve ever had in my life and the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make as well but I don’t regret it.
“I think everything happens for a reason and so I refocused on going to the World Cup. There were always more Olympics to come and so from then it just became an itch I couldn’t scratch. I was never going to let that go and I was never going to be told that I couldn’t do that again.”
The Yorkshire native has now been chosen as part of Team GB’s 12-strong sevens squad for this summer’s Games in Paris.
Kildunne, labelled the ‘best player in the world’ by Ugo Monye, was named 2024 Women’s Six Nations Player of the Championship after a staggering nine tries in five matches.
The Olympics has always pulled on her heartstrings – as a schoolgirl, she wrote a 6,000-word English assignment on Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill.
But it was a simple self-shot video from Team GB’s first-ever women’s rugby sevens squad that cemented her ambition.
“Of course, I watched the Olympics growing up as everyone else does,” she said. “But I remember when at Rio 2016 when the rugby sevens was first announced as a sport, I found a video on YouTube that was the girls getting kitted out before Rio. I watched that video every single day because it felt like I was there with them.
“Sure the Games are cool, but seeing the life outside of it really inspired another side of me. I think that really inspired the creative side of me as well, seeing life at a new angle.”
Kildunne herself is an incredibly creative person on and off the rugby pitch. Extracting pleasure in the simplicity of just taking a picture on her camera, Kildunne admits amateur photography is the only hobby which allows her to truly switch off from sport.
As Team GB’s rugby sevens’ self-appointed official photographer, Kildunne will look to capture her summer in Paris from every angle.
“People speak about switching on and switching off but I can’t switch off until I have that camera in my hand,” she said. “My brain always goes a million miles an hour and I will be thinking about a pass that I made or a gap that I saw that we didn’t quite get.
“I’ve found this recipe that works so well for me where my brain stops and goes off being an Ellie Kildunne rugby cap and to a girl with a camera in her hands. It lets me look at life beautifully so of course I want to capture that at Paris.”
Meanwhile, to secure Paris 2024 qualification the GB men’s rugby sevens team need to win this weekend’s Olympic repechage tournament in Monaco.
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