The two-time Olympic Gold medal winner\u2019s news comes after a year-long pause on her remarkable sporting career for the birth of her baby boy Harvey in March this year.<\/p>\n
A then-pregnant Brake signed her new contract in late 2025 with NZR\u2019s full support through maternity leave and confidence she\u2019d be fit and ready return to training in 2026.<\/p>\n
Brake, 30, said she was looking forward to easing back into the Black Ferns Sevens environment in the coming months, but knows she will have to fight for her place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last nine months have been humbling, pregnancy has been a journey and it\u2019s made me appreciate women\u2019s bodies a lot more than I did before. The arrival of my son Harvey has been such a joy and I\u2019m now in a place mentally where I want to come back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love this team and this game so much. It\u2019s been incredibly exciting watching the young talent come through. They\u2019ve stepped up massively this year and I\u2019m so proud of them. But when I come back, I\u2019m going to be that aunty that\u2019s annoying, and I\u2019m going to be fighting for my position.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brake expects some \u201ctrial and error\u201d as she eases back into training but knows she has the full support of her family, coaches and teammates<\/p>\n
\u201cI now call myself a fulltime mum and a part time rugby player because the well-being of my son comes first, so the fact I\u2019m able to still be able to play rugby and come back to the Black Ferns Sevens is such a privilege.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very lucky to be in a position where I can come back and to have so much support around me who are helping me along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s Sevens most prolific try scorer with 273 five-pointers, Brake last wore the Black Ferns Sevens jersey in May 2025 in Los Angeles where New Zealand was crowned World Series winners for the eighth time.<\/p>\n
Black Ferns Head Coach Cory Sweeney was looking forward to Brake\u2019s fulltime return to the team environment later in the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichaela is hugely important to our group, not only for what she brings to the field but also as a positive influence in the way she carries herself and the intensity, focus and professionalism she brings to training every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has stayed connected with our group, but we\u2019re looking forward to officially welcoming her back to the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sweeney said there was no hard deadline on her return to match play.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a remarkable athlete and incredibly competitive, but we\u2019ll take our time and manage her transition back into training through the second half of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
NZR Head of Women\u2019s High Performance Hannah Porter said:<\/p>\n
\u201cMichaela was clear around her intention to return to Sevens and NZR wanted to be there to support her through her pregnancy and give her the certainty that our door was open when she was ready to resume her career.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled she feels ready to return and is in a great place both physically and mentally after such a significant period in her life. She has always been an inspiring figure within our game, and her return once again highlights what is possible for athletes balancing both motherhood and high performance sport.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The two-time Olympic Gold medal winner\u2019s news comes after a year-long pause on her remarkable sporting career for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-451809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}