Q&A: Ben Ryan on life after becoming an Olympic legend – and Fijian chief – as coach of the island’s gold-medal rugby team
The last few months have been a whirlwind for the Englishman, but he has some massive plans for the future after leaving the islanders
Back in Hong Kong for a flying visit for the HKRU Long Lunch, he sat down for an enlightening talk about the aftermath of that historic triumph, becoming the first foreigner to be made a Fijian chieftain, working with the New York Knicks and top CEOs, a book and possible movie about the Olympic story, and setting up a Pacific Islands Super Rugby franchise.
How crazy have the last few months been?
I don’t feel like I’ve ever stopped really. Obviously we had the time in the Olympics after the competition to try to take it all in and probably the No.1 thing that surprised me was how many people watched the sevens and the impact it had on the global scale. The New York Knicks players knew about Fiji sevens, they’d watched it in the locker room and were amazed with the athleticism of our boys and the similarities of the offloading and passing in basketball. The media attention from China, the US and from countries that have no history in sevens or rugby showed you that the Olympics just lifts everything on to a higher level ... even if you won a World Cup in 15s, I doubt anyone would bat an eyelid in the US or China, but Sevens and the Olympics is completely different.
Did it surprise you the impact the Games made?
I think post-tournament it did. We felt like it was another tournament going in ... afterward was when it began to hit home. Everyone knew the story. The Olympic Village afterwards when we went in to dinner people were turning and pointing at our boys. They didn’t really know how to handle it all I think, it was a massive surprise to all of us. We got everything perfect going into the Games and after the final I think all of us were blown away by the level of media hype around the town.
