Watching Olivia Apps bulldoze her well beyond opponents is a sight to behold. The 25-year-old rugby sevens participant’s unrelenting pace and energy have set the tone for a momentous Olympic effort by the Canadian staff, which captured the silver medal on Tuesday within the 2024 Paris Video games.

Apps, the staff captain, additionally occurs to have alopecia, an autoimmune illness that triggered her to lose her hair when she was rising up in Ontario. The situation, which is because of an immune assault on follicles, can typically be so extreme even an individual’s eyelashes and eyebrows might fall out.

Apps began shedding her hair when she was simply seven years outdated, she advised CBC, and it took docs almost a 12 months to diagnose her. Though it was difficult, she says the expertise helped give her a optimistic perspective on her physique, Apps mentioned. “I misplaced my hair at a younger age and that was in all probability really a good time for me,” she advised CBC. “As a result of I feel if I have been in highschool or my 20s, that might be a distinct set of challenges. However after I was youthful, I rapidly understood what it meant to be comfy in my very own pores and skin.”

As a child, Apps tried carrying a wig however in the end determined to not. “Though I used to be solely seven years outdated, I knew there was one thing so highly effective in simply having the ability to say, ‘Hey, that is who I’m and I don’t really care what anybody thinks,’” she advised CBC.

Whereas acknowledging that consciousness of the illness continues to be missing—Apps is usually requested if she is present process chemotherapy or if she shaves her head—the rugby star goals to assist folks to raised perceive the situation by sharing her expertise in interviews and on social media.

Two years in the past in a World Rugby movie, Apps shared her journey and spoke concerning the significance of utilizing her platform to problem stereotypical magnificence requirements. “I feel that younger ladies have to have extra ladies in these sorts of areas displaying them that you just don’t must look a sure technique to be lovely or to be accepted or to be liked or discover belonging,” Apps mentioned. “I feel a variety of ladies in these areas, like myself, hopefully are breaking these boundaries.”

For Apps, the trail to Paris included a terrifying encounter outdoors the game. Simply six weeks earlier than the beginning of the Olympic Video games, Apps and a pal have been mountain climbing with their canines at Elk River Path in Strathcona Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada, when a cougar attacked them. After spraying the cat with bear spray, the pair and their canines managed to flee. Apps needed to be handled for a cougar chew (as did one of many canines) after they have been air-lifted out of the park, in accordance with Victoria’s Occasions Colonist. Simply days later, she was again coaching with the staff.

Canada’s run in Paris was the nation’s finest but for the game on the Olympics. Eight years after capturing bronze within the Rio Video games in 2016, the squad notched one upset after one other till the much-anticipated remaining towards defending champions New Zealand. On Tuesday, Canada earned a silver medal towards the Black Ferns with a rating of 19-12.

Although nothing is ever sure on the Olympics, Apps predicted the squad’s elevated efficiency in Paris. “We’re not seven people—we’re taking part in as a staff. We’re at all times attempting to get higher. We’re at all times attempting to uplift the requirements. And we take into consideration the legacy that we have now on this jersey,” Apps advised Olympics Canada.

That cougar didn’t stand an opportunity.

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