Ellia Tiriseyani Green (born 20 February 1993) is an Australian

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

and

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

player. He was formerly a member of the Australia rugby sevens team that won the gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. He also played for the

New Zealand Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...

in the NRLW.

Early life

Assigned female at birth, Green was born in

Suva Suva () is the capital and largest city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rewa Province, Central Di ...

, Fiji, and moved to Australia's Central Coast,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

with his adoptive parents at the age of five. His adoptive father was Polish and died when Green was young. His adoptive mother, Yolanta, was English and died of cancer in 2018. Green started

Little Athletics Little Athletics is an Australian activity program that involves modified athletics events for children aged 3 to 16 in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory); 3 ...

at the age of six and excelled in sprinting. He spent 10 years in athletics, representing Australia in the 100m, 200m and long jump at the World Junior Championships, until his cousins convinced him to try rugby sevens. First playing for Warringah at club level and going on to debut for Australia in February 2013.

Career

Rugby sevens

Green scored an 80-metre try against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

in the three-match exhibition series at the Gold Coast Sevens, a match broadcast live on

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

. Within four hours, the try had been viewed over 200,000 times on the IRB Sevens World Series Facebook page. Green was recruited by the Australian Rugby Sevens program after attending a Pathway to Gold Talent ID camp in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...

in 2012. Green was a sprinter, having previously represented Australia in

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

at the World School Games in

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

in 2009 and scored the winning try after the siren against Canada at Twickenham in the Sevens World Series in May 2015. Representative Honours include Victoria. Green was a member of

Australia's Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

team at the

2016 Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

, defeating

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

in the final to win the inaugural Olympic gold medal in the sport. Before the 2020 Olympic Sevens took place, Green had been hampered by a knee injury for which he was not ruled out. Coach John Manenti left Green out of the squad, saying: "

t is the T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is de ...

toughest call of his career", adding: " reenjust can't run as quick as eonce could. Ultimately that's isweapon and strength are isX-factors and ejust wasn't producing that with any consistency." Green, on

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

said: "The past few days have been pretty long and dark since being told I haven't been selected for the Tokyo Olympics." On 9 November 2021, Green announced his retirement from rugby sevens. He finished his career in the Sevens Series Rugby Sevens competition with 149 appearances (26th), 94 tackles, 141 tries (4th), 739 points (6th), 90 clean breaks (10th), and 244 runs (27th).

Rugby league

In September 2020, Green, along with

Australia sevens The Australia Sevens is an international rugby sevens tournament that was first played in 1986. Currently hosted as the Sydney Sevens, the event is part of the World Rugby Sevens Series. The tournament was held in Brisbane, in Adelaide, and o ...

teammate

Evania Pelite Evania Faaea Pelite (born 12 July 1995) is an Australian rugby union and rugby league player. She won a gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. Pelite made her debut for the Australian women's national rugby sevens team at the age of ...

, signed for

NRL Women's Premiership The Telstra NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW) is Australia's national rugby league competition for women's rugby league in Australia, female players. The first season of the league began in September 2018 with four teams. The league is run by the ...

(NRLW) team the

. Green was poised to sign for the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite com ...

, however did not want to spend the four-week period operating under COVID-19 quarantine requirements in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. On his debut, Green scored a side-line try against the Broncos in the 8th minute. He did not score again, however remained a dangerous presence throughout the match on the wing. Green scored again in round three against the

St. George Illawarra Dragons The St. George Illawarra Dragons is an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George, Sydney, St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League since NR ...

, and set up teammate

in a 10–22 win.

Personal life

Green lives in the Sydney suburb of

Lane Cove Lane Cove is a suburb on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Lane Cove is nine kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local governmen ...

. He has a daughter with his partner Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts. On 16 August 2022, Green came out as a

transgender man A trans man is a man who was assigned female at birth. The label of transgender man is not always interchangeable with that of transsexual man, although the two labels are often used in this way. ''Transgender'' is an umbrella term that incl ...

. He did not change his name. The announcement made him the first Olympian to come out as a trans man. He retired from rugby to focus on his transition and said, "I knew I couldn't do

hormone therapy Hormone therapy or hormonal therapy is the use of hormones in medical treatment. Treatment with hormone antagonists may also be referred to as hormonal therapy or antihormone therapy. The most general classes of hormone therapy are oncologic h ...

or surgery during my career". He uses

they/them Singular ''they'', along with its inflected or derivative forms, ''them'', ''their'', ''theirs'' and ''themselves'' (or ''themself''), is a gender-neutral third-person pronoun. It typically occurs with an unspecified antecedent, in sentences ...

and he/him pronouns.

Notes

References

External links

Ellia Green
at

Australian Rugby Rugby Australia Ltd, previously named the Australian Rugby Union Limited and Australian Rugby Football Union Limited, is an Australian company operating the premier rugby union competition in Australia and teams. It has its origins in 1949. It ...

* * *
Warriors profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Ellia 1993 births Living people Australia international rugby sevens players Australian adoptees Australian male sprinters Australian rugby union players Australian rugby league players Australian rugby sevens players Australian people of I-Taukei Fijian descent Commonwealth Games medallists in rugby sevens Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Australia LGBT rugby union players LGBT sportspeople from Australia Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics New Zealand Warriors (NRLW) players Olympic gold medalists for Australia Olympic medalists in rugby sevens Olympic rugby sevens players of Australia Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Rugby sevens players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Rugby sevens players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Transgender men Transgender sportsmen