'Is this real?': Breathtaking moment Fijians won Olympic rugby sevens gold in Rio
To mark 100 days from the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Nine.com.au asked you what your favourite Olympic memories were in a survey. The response was overwhelming! We chose 50 of them to re-live, one a day, before new memories are made in Paris. Scroll on for today's memory.
Among the most heartwarming scenes of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games was the triumph of Fiji, a nation with a population of less than a million people, in the men's rugby sevens tournament.
Well before the full-time whistle had blown on the Fiji-Great Britain final, a wild party was raging in the Pacific nation made up of more than 300 islands. Fiji had never won an Olympic medal, let alone gold, and the people back at home were in raptures.
On the pitch in Rio, the victorious Fijians, in celebration of a 43-7 thrashing of Great Britain, shed tears of joy, gazed up at the heavens and said some prayers. They then huddled together in a circle and recited a spine-tingling rendition of the Fijian hymn E Da Sa Qaqa, singing words that translate to "we have overcome".
Watch the video at the top of the page to see Fiji win Olympic rugby sevens gold in Rio!
Jasa Veremalua of Fiji streaks away to score in the Rio 2016 final. Getty Images
But it was also the fashion in which the Fijians, a mix of giants and athletically breathtaking men, played footy that captivated millions. With pulverising runs, daring offloads and blinding pace, the Fijians piled on seven tries to one in the final. En route to the final, they had beaten revered rugby nations such as New Zealand and Argentina.
"Winning gold against Great Britain was surreal," said the team's captain, Osea Kolinisau, five years after the Rio Games.
"The way we played that final, it was a perfect game of sevens ... Everything went the way we wanted it to go.
"When the final whistle was over I was relieved but also I was like, 'Am I dreaming? Have we really won in the Olympics, because Fiji has never won a medal in the Olympics'. Now we won a gold medal. We looked at each other and were like, 'Is this real?'.
"We were like, 'Maybe when we wake up tomorrow then everything will settle in, and that feeling that you have accomplished something great'."
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The Fijians singing a hymn after clinching gold. Getty Images
The Fijian men successfully defended their Rio gold in Tokyo in 2021.
Fiji’s women’s rugby sevens team also added to the country's modest but growing stash of Olympic medals in Tokyo, collecting bronze.
"I first fell in love with rugby when I was five years old," Kolinisau said.
"It's Fiji's national sport. You grow up watching everybody play, when everybody around you does it.
"Almost every young boy dreams to be a rugby player and play for Fiji one day, and almost everybody follows that path because it can get you a better life and better opportunities."
