Olympic gold-winning footy star Ellia Green reveals the love he has rediscovered after transitioning from a woman to a man
Olympic gold medallist Ellia Green has revealed how he recently rediscovered one of the loves of his life almost three years after going public with his decision to transition from a woman to a man.
The 32-year-old called his transition 'the best decision of my life' when he revealed it in an inspirational video in August 2022.
Now he is riding the high of another great decision - returning to the rugby field with the famous Sydney Convicts team, which bills itself as Australia's first gay and inclusive union club.
Green ran out for the side recently as they won their first match of the season by beating Epping 29-5 - and declared he'd rediscovered his love for footy.
'It's given me so much more than just the experience of playing rugby again, it's given me that feeling of family that rugby has always given me,' he told Fox Sports.
'The feeling of, like, adrenaline every time I get the ball, feeling of excitement when I'm running into contact. Like, this is everything that I love.'
Before making his official debut, Green revealed how his first taste of rugby action left him elated.
'First trial games against Manly and Mosman before the season kicks off playing 15s with the boys,' he wrote.
'Had so much fun out there even though I was so unbelievably nervous with the fear of failure, expectations and pressure on myself.
'Then I was quickly reminded of much I love this game the rugby community and hitting bodies ... As well as being so lucky to have my crew there to support me doing what I love best.'
Green won gold with the Aussie women's rugby sevens team at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and represented his country in 149 games, as well as starring for the New Zealand Warriors NRLW side in 2020.
He scored an incredible 141 tries - the fourth-most in history - and 739 points over the 149 matches, and was almost impossible to stop once he had a full head of steam.
But despite that, Green was controversially left out of Australia's rugby sevens squad for the Tokyo Olympics last year, something coach John Manenti described at the time as the 'toughest call of his career'.
It led to a downward spiral of sorts, with Green, like many athletes, linking a disappointment in the sporting world to some sort of blight on her character - a devastating reality many athletes experience that can lead to serious mental health issues.
Green is pictured scoring for Australia in the Women's Rugby Sevens World Cup final in 2018
'This is what happened to me. Pretty much my rugby career ended and I had been in and out of mental health facilities for serious issues. My depression hit a new level of sadness,' Green said.
'I spent a lot of time after I finished up my career with Australian rugby just in the house, in a dark room, I didn´t have the confidence to see anyone.
'I was ashamed of myself, I felt I had let a lot of people down, especially myself and my mom. I felt like a complete failure, it was heartbreaking,' he added, explaining the feelings that lingered after being left off the Olympic team.
'The one thing that did keep me positive is that I had already planned my surgery and treatment towards my transition. It was something I was counting down the days with my partner.'
'I just knew it was going to be the most liberating feeling when I had that surgery and to be in the body I knew I had to be,' Green said in the video announcing the transition.
'That was a bright spark in my mind during these dark times facing demons, but I knew there was light at the end of the tunnel.
'I knew something that would make me really happy is that, No. 1, I am going to live the rest of my life with my partner and my daughter (Waitui). And that I am going to live the rest of my life as her dad,' said Green.
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The Herald Scotland
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The National
an hour ago
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The National
an hour ago
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Scotland's quickest-ever woman is back and ready to run fast
She was in constant, excruciating pain and even lying in bed was unbearably sore. It was quite a contrast for the Scot who, just a few years earlier, had established herself as the fastest Scottish woman in history and was, it seemed, on her way to becoming a truly world class sprinter. But just as she was peaking, the worst of luck struck Rees. In the summer of 2023, only a few months after setting a new Scottish indoor 60m record (she was already Scottish 100m record holder), Rees tore her hamstring. In itself, this would be a serious enough setback but more bad fortune was to follow, with Rees being diagnosed with arthritis in her pelvis which, it turned out, was the source of her crippling pain. Given her physical issues, it's perhaps no surprise that the Edinburgh AC athlete began to accept that her career as an elite runner may have been halted just as she was hitting her peak. 'This time last year, I really wasn't sure if I would ever compete again because I couldn't even walk without pain,' the 26-year-old says. 'I would go to the track to do rehab and watch people running and I just couldn't ever imagine that being me again. 'It was a really tough time because I was still turning up to training, but I didn't feel like I was in the sport anymore.' Rees admits that the prospect of hanging up her spikes for good was a 'constant thought' but it was watching the Paris Olympics last summer that persuaded her to give athletics one more shot. 'Last year, I became a 'normal person', not an athlete and I had a good time but when the Olympics was on television I thought, yes, I've had a fun summer but I want to give it another go because I still had a real drive to compete at major championships,' she says. 'Giving up would have been the easy option, and I think me a few years ago would have quit but I didn't want to reach the end of my career and feel like I hadn't given it everything.' A change of medication kick-started a recovery that saw Rees tentatively return to training and turn of the year went encouragingly smoothly, to the point that she felt able to dip her toe back into the world of competitive sprinting. Alisha Rees is Scottish women's 100m record holder (Image: Alex Livesey/ Getty Images) In the past two months, Rees has raced six times and while she's not producing the sort of times she was at her very best - her fastest time this season is 11.78 seconds in comparison to her Scottish record of 11.30 seconds - when she takes a step back she's able to appreciate the distance she's travelled since this time last year. 'It's strange being back competing, because you forget what it's like. Before my first race back, I couldn't sleep the night before because I was so nervous,' she says. 'But it's so good to be back. I know it will take time to get close to where I was before, but it's very hard to be patient. 'I've got faster nearly every time I've raced, though, and I do believe that by the end of the season, I'll be in a position where I'm happy with how I'm running.' There will, Rees hopes, be further improvement in her performance within the coming weeks, which will lay the foundations for a strong performance at the British Championships in August, which is where her injury issues began two years ago. She is, however, reluctant to set too many long-term goals - her injury issues make it impossible to know just how her body will cope with the stresses and strains of elite-level sprinting - and so her focus remains on appreciating her health and fitness and any success on the track will be a welcome, and well-deserved, bonus. 'I'm enjoying the sport again, which is so nice because last year it was a very unenjoyable time,' she says. 'I'm happy to be turning up at training and able to do the sessions, so I'm feeling good. 'There's the Commonwealth Games next year but this time, I'm in a very different position from where I was a year out from the 2022 Commonwealth Games. 'Obviously, I would love to target an individual spot in the team next year, but at the moment it's hard to know if that's realistic or not because I've still not raced much. 'There's also the chance to go for a relay spot, which would be amazing too, because a home Games will obviously be amazing. 'The goal for this year was to get back racing and I've already hit that target so it'll be nice to see where I can go from here.'
