Ruby Tui - Straight Up

This is Ruby Tui. An open, raw and honest account of her journey from a troubled and unstable childhood yearning for a better option in life to Olympic Champion and the world's best rugby sevens player. Ruby learned to rely on herself and her own strengths as a child, growing up without role models, in an atmosphere of misery and shame. Her extended family did all they could but it was sport that was the one constant in her childhood, and that pulled her through. Her sporting talent helped her fit in as she was moved from school to school and community to community throughout her childhood. From the age of about eleven, Ruby found herself in some very difficult and dangerous situations and things could have turned out quite differently for her. Fortunately her strength of character and resilience meant that she survived. Not only survived, Ruby managed to make it to university. And it was there that she discovered her love of rugby. From there, her stellar career in rugby took off, firstly in the Black Ferns Sevens team and now playing fifteens for the Chiefs and the New Zealand team. Off the field Ruby is a regular commentator for SKY TV and passionate about healthy environments for Kiwi kids and speaking up about mental health within the sporting community. Impacting change through speaking out about public issues, and providing motivation and gratitude to her peers is how she would like to leave her mark. Ruby is the current ambassador for the Headfirst initiative.