GUSTAITIS Abby

General
POSTPONEMENT POSITIVES
She described the postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games as "devastating" at first, but eventually saw a positive side to the postponement. "We're looking at it as a second chance. If there were things that you didn't do in this year [2019/20] leading up to the Olympics, you have another shot, an opportunity to do it better. Maybe I wasn't as fast or as strong as I could have been. So now, I have a year to just be a better athlete, a better rugby player, a better teammate, and to do everything I can to make my team better. I've come to look at the positives." (theguardian.com, 06 May 2020)

LEADER
She was named co-captain of the US sevens team in 2019/20, and says that her father Stan has inspired her leadership mentality. "He was a volunteer for the fire department and I watched him work through the ranks to become the local fire chief. I idolised him and watched him become this leader for another group of people. It was so inspiring and made me want to be the best version of myself. I was driven to lead by example like him. He would run into a burning building for his teammates and divide up tasks for people to do. I like to think I would do that on a rugby field. It has led to my leadership style - do what you are telling other people to do. My main strength is my kickoffs. I play prop, which is in the forwards in sevens rugby. My job is to retrieve the ball when we kick it away and when we receive the ball. I am also a power runner and use my size when we have a mismatch." (scmp.com, 01 Mar 2020; usa.rugby, 01 Jan 2020; agogie.com, 26 Oct 2018; rugbybricks.com, 09 Sep 2020)

FOCUSING ON RUGBY
After graduating from the University of Maryland, she deferred plans to attend medical school and become a doctor in order to focus on playing rugby. She says this was initially difficult for her family to accept, but they eventually came to understand her decision. "[Mum] was not pleased. I was the first person in my family, immediate or extended, to go to university, so it was a big deal to my family that I pursed an education in the first place. They were super proud of me graduating. So, it was a bit of a slap to the face [to defer medical school]. You know, 'Scratch that, I'm sort of going to go do the opposite and go hit some people and toss a ball around'. But in the end they've come to love the sport and have travelled to watch me play and they've fallen in love with it, and are super excited to watch me achieve this dream." (scmp.com, 01 Mar 2020)

SAVING LIVES
She is a qualified emergency medical technician [EMT] and worked as a first responder in Pylesville, MD, United States of America from 2008 to 2014. Both her parents have worked at the Norrisville Volunteer Fire Company in Pylesville, and she also became a volunteer firefighter at age 16. In 2009, while on the way to her high school prom, she stopped at a car accident to provide assistance, climbing inside the car to stabilise the neck of a victim until first responders arrived, before continuing on to her prom. "I became an EMT when I was 16. I really grew to love it, and I think that is sparked the drive in me to want to help people. There was that sort of thrill you get, the pressure to perform. I loved that about being an EMT, and that's kind of what I love about sevens as well. It's not for everyone, especially if you don't like blood. It's sort of like rugby sevens. It's a roller coaster. Your emotions go so high and then so low depending on the outcome you get. And you are not always going to get the outcome you want, but it's how you respond to it that could potentially save someone's life, or win you a game. Eventually, I plan to enter back into it." (theguardian.com, 06 May 2020; scmp.com, 01 Mar 2020; aedelhard.com, 01 Jun 2018)

UNION STINT
She switched her attention to rugby union [15-a-side] after being cut from the US sevens residency programme in 2016 and not being selected for t

She was part of the US team that won their first-ever World Series gold medal in the 2019 Biarritz Sevens tournament. (usa.rugby, 06 Oct 2019)