Olympic champion Ellia Green finds liberation in transition, told The Associated Press it was the best decision of his life. Check it out.
Ellia Green : Partner | Transgender | SAS | Top surgery
Ellia Tiriseyani Green OAM is an Australian rugby union and rugby league player.
| Birth name | Ellia Tiriseyani Green |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | 20 February 1993 |
| Place of birth | Suva, Fiji |
| Height | 172 cm (5 ft 8 in) |
| Weight | 78 kg (172 lb) |
Green was formerly a member of the Australia rugby sevens team that won the gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. Green also played for the New Zealand Warriors in the NRLW.
Assigned female at birth, Green was born in Suva, Fiji, and moved to Australia’s Central Coast, New South Wales at the age of five. Green started Little Athletics at the age of six and excelled in sprinting.
Green spent 10 years in athletics, representing Australia in the 100m, 200m and long jump at the World Junior Championships, until his cousins convinced him to try rugby sevens.
First playing for Warringah at club level and going on to debut for Australia in February 2013.
Ellia Green Partner
Ellia Green’s partner is Vanessa Ness. The couple are dating for a while now and was blessed with a baby. Earlier in February, Ellia revealed about her baby on her social media account.
She shared the beautiful news of the arrival of her baby on her social media handle with a beautiful caption and her picture.
Ellia wrote welcoming her baby. She said, “Welcome to the world, Waitui Yolanta Green Roberts.”
Green continues saying “I love you, my baby. Every time I saw I saw our parents sitting on ten top and blessing us.
Whenever I see you I feel so blessed and happy. You are the greatest gift of my life. Thank you for being a part of my life.”
Transgender
The 29-year-old, who won a gold medal at the Rio Games in 2016, becomes the first Olympian to come out as a trans man.
The only other transgender or gender diverse Olympic gold medalists are decathlete Caitlyn Jenner and the Canadian football player Quinn, who won gold in Tokyo last year.
Green’s transition comes at a time when the spotlight is on the issue of trans athletes in professional sport.
Transgender women have been blocked by World Rugby from competing in women’s rugby union while the International Rugby League has precluded rugby league players who have transitioned from male to female from international competition.
In June, swimming’s world governing body, Fina, voted to bar transgender women from elite female competitions.
Ellia Green SAS
SAS Australia 2022 star Ellia Green has come out as a transgender man and spoke about the importance of trans representation in sport.
Ellia – who uses he/him pronouns and has not changed his name – is the “first Olympian trans man to come out” and spoke openly about his transition at an international summit focused on ending transphobia and homophobia in sport.
The Olympic champion also used the platform to highlight the disproportionate suicide rates of trans youth and slammed World Rugby’s decision to bar transgender women from playing women’s rugby.
“Banning transgender people from sport is disgraceful and hurtful. It only means the rates of suicide and mental health issues will get even worse,” he told Associated Press.
Now retired from professional rugby, the Fijian-born sportsman’s plans for the future are being a “full-time daddy” to his infant daughter Waitui, who he shares with his partner Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts.
Top surgery
A ripple of shock went through Aussie – and world – sevens last week when gold medal-winning star Ellia Green posted a picture of herself from a hospital bed, complete with a cryptic caption.
The image was straight forward enough: Green on a bed with her right ankle swathed in bandages, clearly after having undergone surgery.
Green was inundated with well-wishes from teammates and World Series stars alike, with Carlin Isles replying: “Better be speedy! The Olympics needs you.”
So what’s the story? Is Green, gasp, in danger of missing the Olympics?
Breathe easy because Aussie sevens officials say no.
The ankle surgery was a general clean-up, and the expectation is while Green may miss tournaments in the next month or two as she rehabs, the 173 days before the start of the Aussie women’s title defence begins at the Tokyo Olympics should be more than enough to see the star flyer back on her feet and scoring tries.