Olympian struck gold with rugby discovery at Carolina

Editor’s note: Naya Tapper and the U.S. women’s rugby sevens national team earned a bronze medal at the Paris Games, defeating Australia 14-12 in the bronze-medal match.

Many Tar Heels discover what they’re passionate about once they get to campus. Far fewer find a passion that takes them to the Olympics.

But before Naya Tapper ‘16 became an Olympian and made SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays, she played rugby as a club sport on Hooker Fields.

Tapper was a track and field sprinter in high school, not a rugby player. “My high school randomly had a team, but I didn’t get into it then,” she said.

At Carolina, she decided to remain competitive athletically with a new sport. Enter rugby, which blends speed and physicality, two of her specialties.

It didn’t take long for her to stand out as a promising player, even if she hadn’t yet mastered some of the sport’s finer skills and techniques. But there’s a difference between excelling against other college teams and potentially representing your country. Tapper began to realize the latter was possible when Johnathan Atkeison, Carolina’s coach at the time, recommended her to USA Rugby as a player to scout.

She remembers asking herself, “Oh, you’re actually good at this?”

“I think that was the moment for me where I realized that I could take this a lot farther than I planned,” said Tapper, who majored in exercise and sport science.

Tapper took rugby and ran with it, going on to a career as a professional athlete and two-time Olympian with the U.S. women’s rugby sevens national team.

Learn more about how rugby sevens differs from 15-a-side rugby

She made her national team debut in February 2016 while still a student and has since established herself as one of the nation’s top players. An offensive threat at winger, she holds the U.S. rugby sevens record for the most career tries (rugby’s way of scoring points), has appeared in three Rugby World Cups and will co-captain the Americans this year in Paris.

Compared to the COVID-19 impacted 2020 Games that were held a year late and with less fanfare, the upcoming competition will give Tapper an experience that matches what she’s dreamed of.

“With Tokyo, there were a lot of restrictions in terms of access to areas outside of the village, being able to interact with athletes in the village and not having fans and supporters in the stands,” she said. “With Paris, being able to have all of that, there’s a lot of excitement about what the experience will be like.”

Apart from the atmosphere, Tapper also has high hopes for her team’s performance. Rugby sevens became an Olympic sport in 2016, and the Americans are looking for their first medal, having finished sixth in Tokyo.

Tapper will end her professional rugby journey in Paris, having recently announced her retirement following the upcoming Games. “Before I can officially say my goodbyes, I still have a job to finish in Paris,” she said.

Tapper said she’s seen the sport’s popularity grow since she started playing and recognizes how a successful Olympics for the U.S. could bolster the game even more.

Off the field, Tapper does a bit of everything, including guest coaching, public speaking and working as a social media ambassador and manager. She’s even established the Naya Tapper Scholarship, which provides financial funding to youth interested in playing rugby in San Diego, where she lives.

Following the Games, Tapper plans to reunite with some of her Tar Heel teammates for a Turks and Caicos birthday vacation. She also hopes to make it back to campus this upcoming school year.

“I want to go back to my roots and pay respect to the organization that has put me where I am today,” she said.