Watching Olivia Apps bulldoze her well beyond opponents is a sight to behold. The 25-year-old rugby sevens participant’s unrelenting pace and power have set the tone for a momentous Olympic effort by the Canadian group, which captured the silver medal on Tuesday within the 2024 Paris Video games.
Apps, the group captain, additionally occurs to have alopecia, an autoimmune illness that brought about her to lose her hair when she was rising up in Ontario. The situation, which is because of an immune assault on follicles, can typically be so extreme even an individual’s eyelashes and eyebrows might fall out.
Apps began shedding her hair when she was simply seven years previous, she informed CBC, and it took docs almost a 12 months to diagnose her. Though it was difficult, she says the expertise helped give her a optimistic perspective on her physique, Apps stated. “I misplaced my hair at a younger age and that was in all probability truly a good time for me,” she informed CBC. “As a result of I believe if I had been in highschool or my 20s, that will be a distinct set of challenges. However once I was youthful, I rapidly understood what it meant to be snug in my very own pores and skin.”
As a child, Apps tried carrying a wig however in the end determined to not. “Although I used to be solely seven years previous, I knew there was one thing so highly effective in simply with the ability to say, ‘Hey, that is who I’m and I don’t truly care what anybody thinks,’” she informed CBC.
Whereas acknowledging that consciousness of the illness remains to be missing—Apps is commonly requested if she is present process chemotherapy or if she shaves her head—the rugby star goals to assist folks to raised perceive the situation by sharing her expertise in interviews and on social media.
Two years in the past in a World Rugby movie, Apps shared her journey and spoke in regards to the significance of utilizing her platform to problem stereotypical magnificence requirements. “I believe that younger girls must have extra girls in these sorts of areas exhibiting them that you just don’t must look a sure method to be lovely or to be accepted or to be cherished or discover belonging,” Apps stated. “I believe a whole lot of girls in these areas, like myself, hopefully are breaking these obstacles.”
For Apps, the trail to Paris included a terrifying encounter exterior the game. Simply six weeks earlier than the beginning of the Olympic Video games, Apps and a buddy had been mountaineering with their canine at Elk River Path in Strathcona Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada, when a cougar attacked them. After spraying the cat with bear spray, the pair and their canine managed to flee. Apps needed to be handled for a cougar chew (as did one of many canine) after they had been air-lifted out of the park, in accordance with Victoria’s Instances Colonist. Simply days later, she was again coaching with the group.
Canada’s run in Paris was the nation’s greatest but for the game on the Olympics. Eight years after capturing bronze within the Rio Video games in 2016, the squad notched one upset after one other till the much-anticipated remaining in opposition to defending champions New Zealand. On Tuesday, Canada earned a silver medal in opposition to the Black Ferns with a rating of 19-12.
Although nothing is ever sure on the Olympics, Apps predicted the squad’s elevated efficiency in Paris. “We’re not seven people—we’re enjoying as a group. We’re at all times attempting to get higher. We’re at all times attempting to uplift the requirements. And we take into consideration the legacy that we’ve on this jersey,” Apps informed Olympics Canada.
That cougar didn’t stand an opportunity.
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