Straight Up

Product Information

As we wrap up lunch, one of the Accor managers comes to chat. It’s the school holidays and his two young boys are with him; Tui spends the next 15 minutes talking to them, showing them her World Cup medal. They did try to love him. I heard from my aunty that when Grandma died she said to Grandad, You have to look after my son, Vaki. But Dad was always arguing with his family because he had been through so much, and I think that because he rejected his family’s love, I got that little bit of extra love from them — like I got his share too. I got away with heaps, and I really felt that. I loved her being there. We hung out there in the basement and I’d just want to be with her all the time, whatever she was doing. Lesh, like me, wanted happy families, but it was never that simple with our dad. Down in Canvastown I was a loser, bottom of the heap; but in Wellington I felt cool. I felt better-than — more grown-up than the other kids at my school. No one else was going out and drinking yet, getting stoned. Currie had an impromptu chat with Tui after New Zealand’s 36-0 victory over Russia in the Olympic quarterfinals.

For the record – and I say this with, ahem, no bias whatsoever – New Zealand has six gold medals in Tokyo so far, which is one gold for every 816,000 people. Australia has 15 gold medals at a rate of one for every 1.69 million people. We won silver at the last Olympics, so going into this one it was kind of like, ‘This is it, fam, we’re throwing everything at it here. I stood in the sports section, and I searched and searched. I pulled out book after book, but there wasn't a single biography on a Kiwi female in the whole section. I eventually found an autobiography of Billie Jean King, a famous white American tennis player who did amazing things, but that was it.

SHOPPING ONLINE

What rain? Where’s the thunder? We’re at the Olympics. Let’s be happy. Let’s compete safely and peacefully. Peace and love. Love you guys,” Tui said.

Tui herself is puzzled by some of the reactions she receives. “I find [it] a bit strange, don’t you? I feel like I’m just chatting. It goes viral, which is weird. It is what it is.” On 15 July, the day PR7s stages a western conference event in San Jose, California, a separate professional sevens competition is due to take place at the Red Bull Arena in New Jersey. She writes impactfully of winning the Sevens silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games - and the drama which surrounded that campaign - before going one step higher on the dais to win gold at the following Tokyo Olympics.A theme that constantly arises with Tui is her purpose. She feels a deep sense of responsibility – in life, relationships, rugby and commercial partnerships. Ruby Tui was reluctant to write this but then she went to a bookstore to find a book by any other woman in sport and eventually found one about Billy Jean King but otherwise it was men everywhere. And take it from me as a specialist on the topic of men’s memoirs - 90% of these men in sport are incredibly mediocre.

New Zealand rugby sevens star Ruby Tui already won over BBC viewers a few days ago with her charming interview at the Tokyo Olympics. One fan posted on social media: “Men’s rugby can learn a lot from Ruby Tui. Her enthusiasm and originality is f***ing infectious … legend.” There’s a reason I prefer reading people’s life stories over fiction - sometimes, you just can’t make up what people have actually been through. Reading all the twists and turns of Ruby’s childhood, knowing she ends up as an Olympic gold medallist and Rugby World Cup champ… if that was in a novel, it might seem too much. But in Ruby’s personable and authentic tone, we live those moments with her and realise what she’s been through to arrive where she is now, both on and off the field.

KEEP IN TOUCH

I was surprised that I enjoyed Reading about her training more. Her mindset and motivation are so impressive and matter of fact.

This memoir by Kiwi Rugby Sevens player Ruby Tui & NZ singer Stan Walker's memoir Impossible: My Story employed the same ghostwriter, Margie Thomson. & both books to me feature an amazing theme of the ability to forgive people in their childhoods who have done them both a great wrongs. I needed an escape, and I needed to feel like I fitted in somewhere, and I found that by drinking with Dad and sorting drugs with Hailey and their friends. The Welsh were among the favourites at the tournament; they should have made the final at least. Warburton’s card put paid to those hopes. “He spills the tea on that card and how they didn’t make the final. Oh man, I love that because I can put myself in the shoes,” says Tui. England had lost four previous finals to New Zealand and their hearts were broken once again as Ayesha Leti-I’iga’s try regained a three-point lead for the hosts with nine minutes remaining. Her hand has fended off rugby players around the globe, lifted two gold medals, and – devastatingly – held a knife as she contemplated suicide when she was only 11 years old. I reach out to shake it, but she sweeps my arm aside.Ruby Tui: "Nothing I do is mediocre or just for likes. I really like myself; I don’t need other people’s likes, you know." Photo montage / Michael Craig