A year after giving birth to her first child in 2019, Emilee Cherry had set herself the ambitious goal of returning to the Australian women's sevens team for the Tokyo Olympics.
But the postponement of the games forced the 2016 Rio gold medallist and former World Player of the Year to reassess her life.
After 31 caps for Australia, the seventh highest point scorer in women's rugby sevens history, instead made the shock decision to retire.
"A year ago, I would've been at the Tokyo Olympics as a player," Cherry said.
Amidst the heartache came a realisation she wanted to continue a career in rugby sevens. But in a different way.
"I still wanted to be with the team but not on the field," Cherry said.
Elevating women coaches
Cherry began working with New South Wales Rugby's Development Academy and has now been selected in a new program aimed at increasing the number of female coaches in elite sport.
The 28-year-old is one of 47 coaches from 27 sports taking part in the inaugural AIS Elevate Coach Program, which was developed by the Australian Institute of Sport and several tertiary institutions.
"Retiring and being able to fall into this program has set me on my next path," Cherry said.
There are two focus groups, one is for former high performance athletes transitioning into coaching, while the other specifically focuses on women.
Increased diversity in the ranks
According to the AIS, women coaches will make up 70 per cent of the positions across the two programs, which also includes Paralympic specialists.
With a record number of Australian female athletes recently competing in Tokyo, AIS CEO Peter Conde hopes these programs will further fuel that momentum.
"The results in Tokyo were a huge boost," he said.
A way to go in levelling the field
Despite the exponential growth of elite female athletes, Cherry believes there's still a lag when it comes to women in senior coaching roles.
"When I started out and even until now, there were only male coaches on the international circuit and nationally it's still very male dominated," she said.
Cherry believes initiatives targeting women, such as the AIS Elevate Coach programs, will create a flow-on effect for more retiring female athletes.
"It's important that women have the same opportunities, if they want to pursue a pathway into coaching."
Having played professionally for nearly eight years before starting a family, Cherry says she relied heavily on both male and female coaching staff but noted the significance of having females to be able to turn to.
Near full circle
It's almost full circle for an emerging coach like Cherry, who still vividly recalls her first visit to the AIS as a schoolgirl from the small town of Roma in outback Queensland.
"We took a 24-hour bus trip to go to the AIS in Canberra for a school excursion and I think I fell in love with the place," she recalled.
She was later invited back to the AIS as an 18-year-old to try a sport she'd initially never heard of.
It's a journey that Cherry describes as "pretty incredible".
"As a wide-eyed girl from Roma falling in love with the idea of sport being a job, to playing rugby sevens, winning Olympic gold and now pursuing a coaching career.
The dream continues for Cherry, who hopes her experiences will benefit the next generation of women's sevens players.
"I'm really driven to make rugby sevens in Australia, the best in the world," Cherry said.
And she's already mapped out how.
