The gold-medal winning New Zealand Women's Sevens team have arrived back in Auckland to the open arms of their family and friends.
The Black Ferns became back-to-back Olympic champions after winning the country's first gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, overcoming a resilient Canadian side 19-12 on Wednesday morning.
Tyla King led the team out, waving to the crowd and media before being scooped into a hug with her niece and nephew.
Speaking to media, Michaela Blyde said it was "an honour" to arrive back on Kiwi soil to an airport full of friends, family and fans today.
"It's an honour to come home with the gold medal around the neck and to make our small, little country so proud. To have an impact like this, you know, on young girls and boys is extra special."
Michaela Blyde and her teammates arrived in Auckland today after winning the Women's Sevens at the Paris Olympics. (Source: 1News)
She said it still feels as though they are involved with the rest of New Zealand's Olympic team, even if they would now be cheering from home.
"That's really exciting for us to have our competition over and done with and that we can support the rest of the New Zealand team either back at home or for those girls that are still in Europe at the moment."
"It's been a long month of travel and just being fully zoned into the Olympic Games. So yeah, the emotions are still very high and I don't know when they'll come down... but when it does I'll probably cry my eyes out," she laughed.
Blyde had previously made no secret of her admiration for her "Olympic bestie" Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, even saying she nicknamed her gold medal "Shelly".
"[Shelly] is just an absolute queen and such an icon for women's sports in general, not just athletics. So yeah, of course I'm gonna be supporting her for probably the next week. I've got no excuse but to watch," she joked.
Blyde said she would still be supporting her "[Tara]naki companion" - Kiwi sprinter Zoe Hobbs - but would be keeping a close eye on her inspiration, Fraser-Pryce.
King described seeing her whānau as "the best thing ever".
"I couldn't have asked for anything better really. I was already on a high, but seeing them just made everything way better."
She said many people had congratulated them on the plane coming home.
"Even just being there in that stadium I stood in the empty stadium as it cleared out that night that we won and thought ‘far out this is the last rugby stadium I’m ever going to play rugby Sevens in'," she said.
"I don't think its fully sunk in yet."
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