Jillion Paige Potter (born July 5, 1986) is an American

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player. She was the captain of the 2016 USA Olympic women's

rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

team.

Childhood

Jillion Potter

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

to parents Scott Potter and Vikki Vranich. She has a twin brother Paul Thomas Potter and older sister Molly Potter Grosskopf.

Rugby career

Potter has played for over a decade including the 2013 Women’s Rugby Sevens World Cup, 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup and 2016 Olympics. She was a recipient of the inaugural Leadership Development Scholarship alongside

Ada Milby Ada Lacia Milby (; born July 6, 1983) is a Filipino-American rugby player who plays for the Philippine national women's team. She is also the first female member of the World Rugby Council. Ada is the first woman to be appointed to the World R ...

(Philippines), Samantha Feausi (Hong Kong), Maha Zaoui (Tunisia), Rolande Boro (Burkina Faso), Dr. Araba "Roo" Chintoh (Canada), and Maria Thomas (Trinidad and Tobago). She began her rugby career at the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...

. In 2019, she was on the first panel to determine the

World Rugby World Rugby is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international competit ...

women's-15s player-of-the-year award with

Melodie Robinson Melodie Robinson (born 25 May 1973) is a New Zealand sports journalist and presenter, and former international rugby union player for the New Zealand women's national rugby union team. She played 18 tests for the New Zealand women's team, the Bla ...

, Danielle Waterman,

Will Greenwood William John Heaton Greenwood, Order of the British Empire, MBE (born 20 October 1972) is an English former rugby union player who played for Leicester Tigers and Harlequin F.C., Harlequins and was a member of England's 2003 Rugby World Cup, 20 ...

, Liza Burgess, Lynne Cantwell, Fiona Coghlan, Gaëlle Mignot, Stephen Jones, and

Karl Te Nana Karl Solomon Te Nana (born 15 July 1975) is a New Zealand former rugby union and rugby league footballer, and currently works in broadcasting as a rugby commentator. A professional rugby union player, Te Nana won a gold medal as part of the Ne ...

Personal life

She met her wife Carol Fabrizio in 2011, through rugby. She loves flossing her teeth and has her wife carry dental floss with her everywhere. Potter was diagnosed with stage 3 Synovial Sarcoma cancer in 2014 and has since recovered.

References

External links

Jillion Potter
at

USA Rugby USA Rugby (formally the United States of America Rugby Football Union, Ltd.) is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of rugby ...

* * * * 1986 births Living people American female rugby sevens players United States international rugby sevens players Olympic rugby sevens players for the United States Rugby sevens players at the 2016 Summer Olympics LGBTQ people from Texas American lesbian sportswomen American LGBTQ rugby union players Sportspeople from Austin, Texas University of New Mexico alumni New Mexico Lobos athletes Rugby union players from Texas La Cueva High School alumni 21st-century American sportswomen {{US-rugbyunion-bio-stub