'I want to be gold medal ready': Sarah Hirini returns with sights set on a fourth Olympics

Sarah Hirini intends to be “gold medal” ready as she commits to a fourth Olympic campaign with the Black Ferns Sevens.

The legendary leader, who has won everything there is to win in the sport including captaining New Zealand to two golds and one silver medal, has signed a new two-year contract with New Zealand Rugby, taking her through to the LA Olympics.

The deal will make her the longest serving professionally contracted female player in New Zealand rugby history. Having signed her first contract in 2012, by the time this one ends in 2028 she’ll have been in the Black Ferns Sevens for more than half her life. This time around she’ll be doing it with baby Masaru in tow. Born in May while Hirini and her husband Conor were living in Japan, his name means “victory”.

As she prepares for her return, Hirini calls this “bonus time”.

“I’ve done everything that I have ever dreamed of so now being able to make it back would be a huge dream,” she told RugbyPass. “Giving birth and seeing other women athletes come back to their sport is hugely inspiring so to be able to maybe win another World Series title and then go to another Olympics and win a fourth Olympic medal would be amazing. Anything that happens now I’ll be extremely happy with.”

While a Black Ferns Sevens side without Hirini seems almost unimaginable her return was never a foregone conclusion. In fact, post the Paris Olympics she didn’t think she’d be carrying on for another four-year cycle.

“I still needed a little bit extra after Paris. Obviously doing the ACL, I didn’t think I’d played enough to finish on and I still felt really good, but I also didn’t really think that I would commit to the full four years again.”

Hirini played in Japan in 2025 and was looking forward to a return to the New Zealand set-up for the 2026 season, which was when the coaches first floated the idea of extending even further.

“We’d wanted kids for a long time but that wasn’t quite happening for us, so I was like, oh, yeah, why not? But then between having a break after Japan and going back in [to NZ training], I ended up falling pregnant so obviously everything changed. I wanted to fully commit into making sure everything was good with the pregnancy but there were still ongoing conversations.”

A new contract arrived the day she went into labour.

“There was a bit to work through! Conor was still signed to coach in Japan so there were a lot of conversations about how it would work, and I don’t know if having Masaru shifted how we felt, but I think once we had him, my body was feeling good and I had Conor’s support so here we are; we’re going again.”

Conor has put his coaching career in Japan on hold for now with the family moving back to New Zealand last month. Hirini has been back in training for a few weeks with some modifications to her programme alongside fellow new mums Michaela Brake and Shiray Kaka.

She’s effusive in her praise of the support they have all been given.

“A big motivator for me coming back after having Masaru is the amount of support I’ve had from New Zealand Rugby as a whole and the Black Fern Sevens team and staff. There’s been a pelvic floor specialist during pregnancy, a lactation consultant, a dietician who specialises in mum health and then all the amazing people we already have in our environment who are helping me get back. That was a huge part of why I wanted to come back – to give back to them because they’ve given me so much.”

However Hirini reveals a severe case of the jitters on the first day back with the squad.

“I was super, super nervous and I told the girls that,” she said. “Being out for so long, there were a couple of new girls who I had don’t really know very well and I still wanted to show that I knew stuff and didn’t want to feel like that I was on the back foot.”

She’s loved the first few weeks back, but Hirini says she’s also come into a different group. A core of regulars are away on various other adventures – Jazmin Felix-Hotham is at Ultimate Sevens, Alena Saili and Maia Davis are playing Test rugby, Stacey Waaka has been to rugby league and Theresa Fitzpatrick has also become new mum – meaning there’s a new vibe in the squad.

“The changing room banter is so much different to what it used to be, but that’s what I’m loving as well. I think these young girls who are coming in, they’re almost like another breed, so, just trying to get around that and feel their energy and seeing how keen they are. It’s going to be exciting watching them, hopefully, debut on the World Series this year.”

She’s also returning to a squad which, having barely put a foot wrong for months, fell away in the most critical moments last season to lose the last two events and the HSBC SVNS World Championship to great rivals Australia. Hirini is aiming to be back for HSBC SVNS Singapore, the third leg of the series in late January, wanting to be realistic about where her body is at and what she can add to the side.

“I don’t just want to come back and be the 12th person in the team. I’m competitive, I want to start… I don’t just want to be ready, I want to be gold medal ready.”

A raw 21-year old when she first stepped into the Black Ferns Sevens captaincy, the lead in to each of Hirini’s three previous Olympic campaigns came with a period of mental, physical or personal tumult. Yet there’s no hint of staleness or uncertainty about what lies ahead, rather there are the signs of that same strength of character which got her through tough times and an even stronger sense of advocacy and duty towards the game she loves. Hirini knows sevens rugby is in a state of flux.

“It frustrates me a lot that it has got to the point where some unions don’t want to invest in their sevens programmes and things feel like they’re sitting on a knife edge. This game has grown me and all my team-mates as people and given us extraordinary opportunities. I loved my stints in fifteens but I know I sevens is what has made me a better athlete.”

Despite the absolute anomaly of the fact that she has never won the World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year, Hirini’s legacy as an all-time great of the game, man or woman, sevens or fifteens is incontestable regardless of what happens in the next and final two years of her career.

“I know I’ll be super nervous when I’m lining up in the tunnel for the first time, but I think about what that will feel like and I visualise standing on an Olympic podium again, this time with Masaru in the crowd” she said. “All I ever wanted was to play for New Zealand but now I have another lease on life, I want to make my time away from him worthwhile and I know I’m good enough to make it back.”

This last act may be bonus time but there’s no mistaking Sarah Hirni’s drive and determination.