New Zealand rugby sevens star Michaela Blyde: "Nearly every visualisation that I've put in my head has happened"
In an Olympics.com exclusive, the Olympic gold medallist reveals how she overcame body confidence issues from her childhood, and the mental tool that helped her become a two-time World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year.
Rugby Sevens
Visualisation is has played a key role in Michaela Blyde's rise to the top of rugby sevens.
The flying New Zealand winger initially used it as a kid on the athletics track and football field, and then throughout her career to date as an elite rugby player that saw her land several World Rugby awards.
Blyde even envisaged the hat-trick of tries she scored in the final of last week’s world series event in Hamilton, which was won by the Black Ferns.
_“_I'm not going to lie; I visualised that and it happened,” Blyde, 27, told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview the day after her Hamilton heroics.
“Manifestation is such a strong, powerful thing and a lot of people probably think it's rubbish, but as soon as you have the right energy around you and put yourself in a place where you can just think about your goals with no distractions, I can almost guarantee that they will happen.”
What is Visualisation?
Visualisation: it’s such a well-used term in the world of sport these days. But what does it actually mean and how does Blyde use it?
“I'll just sit there with my headphones on and I'll think about myself running around someone or making a try saving tackle. And I just visualise all these positive, impactful moments on the field. So when it comes to the moment that it could happen on the field, I'm prepared,” she continued.
“Nearly every visualisation that I've put in my head has happened, obviously in addition to a lot of physical training.”
Rugby sevens is a brutal sport in which athletes must possess strength, power, speed, and stamina in equal measure.
As such, many elite players consider it a mental test as much as it is a physical one, and Blyde sees visualisation as the perfect tool to prepare for its exertions.
“You have to get up for three matches in a day, then sleep, and then get up again three times the next day. So it’s a great tool for any player that is struggling to breathe in a game, or starting to think of negative thoughts: 'I need to get off', 'I'm too tired', and you transition and put yourself back ‘into the green’ as we call it.”
Overcoming Rio 2016 Olympics heartbreak
Today, Blyde has arguably the most impressive resume in the sport, having won every title available, but her career has been anything but plain sailing.
The Taranaki native’s first major requirement for mental fortitude in the pro ranks came as a 20-year-old, when she was only selected for rugby sevens’ Olympic debut at Rio 2016 as a non-playing reserve.
“I was gutted. I understood my place, but at the same time, watching the girls play just made me grow a little bit more fire in my belly as I didn’t want to be watching in the crowd ever again,” she said.
“I could have either thrown in the towel because I didn't have a contract for 2017 or put my head down, butt up, and work harder than ever before to put myself in a place where I was fitter, faster and stronger, and the coaches had no choice but to pick me.”
Blyde chose the latter option and decided to spend the next eight weeks in a training camp with the fittest player in the squad, Kelly Brazier, and storied coach Corey Sweeney.
She improved exponentially, and was rewarded with the starting winger berth for the next tournament.
Despite having no contract in place for 2017, Blyde ran in 10 tries and landed the Player of the Tournament award.
“I've had a dream since I was five years old of going to the Olympic Games and winning a gold medal." - Michaela Blyde to Olympics.com
Perhaps the Kiwi's stubborn refusal to give up can be traced back to her roots.
Growing up on a diary farm in rural New Zealand, with a former New Zealand rugby international (Cherry Blyde) for a mother, hard graft became second nature to the aspiring athlete.
“My mom and dad understand what it means to work hard, to be able to put bread on the table. So I guess my willingness to work hard came from them,” she said.
“I've had a dream since I was five years old of going to the Olympic Games and winning a gold medal. Sevens came along in 2012 to give me an opportunity and I wasn’t going to let it go.”
Michaela Blyde's rise to the top
Blyde was unstoppable over the next Olympic cycle.
Her prolific try-scoring rate helped New Zealand win three World Series crowns, the 2018 Rugby Sevens World Cup, and the 2018 Commonwealth Games title.
She was awarded the World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year award in 2017 and 2018, and had the world at her feet.
But just as the winger closed in on the one award that still eluded her - Olympic gold and the ultimate shot at redemption at Tokyo 2020 after her previous Olympic snub - the pandemic struck, forcing the event to be delayed by a year.
“I actually cried my eyes out because the Olympic Games is the one event that I've always wanted to compete in my whole entire life, and it was gone so quickly,” she said.
“I started to think negatively as any athlete would do. I thought about how other teams now can get better, potential injuries, or someone taking my spot.
“But after about four days of grieving my parents we're just like, ‘OK, it's time for you to start training now’.
Winning Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020
Blyde and her teammates got back to work and, true to form, made the most of the opportunity to get even fitter, faster, and stronger mentally.
That hard work showed off as Black Ferns topped their group with three wins, including a remarkable come-from-behind victory over Great Britain, where a Blyde hat-trick helped her team turn around a 21-0 half-time deficit to claim the match 21-26.
The Kiwis never looked like losing from there, and Blyde fittingly scored a stunning opening try - her seventh of the tournament - in the final against France, with New Zealand eventually running out 26-12 winners.
Olympic gold, and redemption, was Blyde’s.
“I just thought to myself at the time, ‘Thank you young Michaela, who had this ridiculous dream but stuck to it, and visualised herself doing it for many, many years’, she said.
“I absolutely encourage any young girl who has a ridiculous dream to stick to it and be proud of it and be someone who wants to achieve things.” - Michaela Blyde to Olympics.com
Inspiring body confidence in girls and young women
Inspiring young girls is very important to Blyde due to some difficult personal experiences from her childhood.
A naturally athletic child, she was teased for having bigger muscles and a more developed body than most of the boys at her school, and developed body confidence issues.
“I was called things like Hulk, Terminator, or the Fast and Fury-ious because I hadn't started shaving my legs,” she revealed.
“All of the things that you can think of, I was teased about, and it was hard as I was 10, 11, 12 years old.
“But I got those boys back with my actions by being a successful rugby player.”
Michaela Blyde: Strong isn't wrong
With the greatest sense of irony, the thing that used to cause her the most pain became her greatest asset.
After becoming a professional rugby player, Blyde sought to enhance those natural gifts even more, and encourages all girls going through something similar to be proud of their shape.
“One of my favourite sayings is: Strong isn't wrong,” she said.
“If you want to run on to the rugby field with no muscles and no strength on your bones, you'll get whooped, so going to the gym is not a bad thing.
“I very rarely get hurt in contact simply because of the work that I've done for my body to be able to handle the contact. I'm not the biggest of people. I'm five foot-bugger-all and 66 kilos, but I definitely don't play like one on the field.
“And so any young girl who struggles to see themselves in the mirror because of what they're doing for their body, I promise over time you will learn to love and care and respect your body to the point where you run onto the field and you thank your body for what it can do.”
Blyde: Visualising gold at Paris 2024 Olympics
Blyde’s dedication to the gym and her physical well-being is certainly paying off in the run up to the Paris 2024 Olympics.
At the time of writing, the 27-year-old is joint top try scorer in the 2022-23 World Series, and second on the all-time list with 117. Her teammate and compatriot Portia Woodman-Wickliffe is No. 1 with 209.
After almost a decade of playing such a demanding sport professionally, these statistics are a testament to the effort Blyde has put into maintaining her physical and mental health, as well as her unwavering passion to keep performing at the top level.
“I just love the game, and the fact that we still wake up in the morning and we want to see each other at training and we still want to go through the hard graft,” she reflected.
“We still want to be successful and we still want to win tournaments. I'm still so excited to represent my country. I love my job so much and I have no desire to go back home and help milk the cows!
“We haven’t qualified for Paris yet, but I'll continue my visualisation and manifestation, and when the final whistle blows in whatever game it will be, I'm going to be really proud of the process that we did and the work that we've done to get to that point.”