Australia's 2016 Rugby Gold Changed the Game for Girls

Shannon Parry stopped mid-jog when she saw something that made her heart soar: eight-year-old girls playing rugby at a Brisbane primary school.

As co-captain of Australia's historic 2016 Olympic rugby sevens gold medal team, Parry didn't have that chance growing up. She couldn't start playing until she was 18 because opportunities simply didn't exist for girls.

"I was like, 'Wow,'" Parry tells ABC Sport. "These girls have this opportunity partly because of what we've been able to create around the legacy of Rio."

August 8 marks the 10th anniversary of Australia's triumph at the Rio Olympics, the first time rugby sevens appeared at the Games. The victory sparked something remarkable: a generation of young athletes who suddenly saw themselves in the sport.

Current Australian sevens co-captain Bella Nasser says she'd "never looked at rugby as a female sport until that moment." Wallaroos star Piper Duck thought "women weren't allowed to play" before watching the 2016 team.

The gold medal didn't happen by accident. Rugby Australia launched talent identification camps in 2012, recruiting athletes from basketball, athletics, touch football, and rugby league.

In early 2014, 21 players accepted full-time contracts and moved to a centralized training facility in Sydney's Narrabeen. For many, including Parry, it meant leaving stable careers behind on nothing more than faith.

"I was a full-time teacher, and we were just juggling rugby on the side," Parry recalls. "They said, 'We're going to go full-time. Here's a contract.' We were like, 'OK.'"

Emilee Barton grew up in Roma, a small Queensland town, playing "every sport under the sun." Touch football was her passion until rugby found her in 2012.

Within two years of joining the program, Barton became World Rugby's Women's Sevens Player of the Year. "It was empowering to be invested in by Rugby Australia," she says. "For them to say, 'We think you can win a gold medal' gave a real sense of ownership."

The Ripple Effect

The impact of that 2016 gold medal extends far beyond one team's achievement. Young girls across Australia now grow up knowing rugby is their sport too, not something they have to wait until adulthood to try.

Parry feels humbled knowing players like Nasser and Duck view her team as trailblazers. "The players coming through now have idols they can look up to," she says.

Ten years later, those eight-year-olds playing at Brisbane primary schools represent the true victory: a future where girls don't have to imagine themselves in the game because they can already see women who've been there.