From Sevens heaven to Sowie's No.6 all in a year's work for Tyla

In the latest instalment in our special 'Telstra Hersday' series on the stars of the women's game, NRL.com talks to two-time Olympic gold medalist Tyla King about the unbreakable self-belief that has helped her prove the doubters wrong for more than a decade.

“Go over there, get that gold medal, and come back to us.”

With that parting message, Dragons NRLW coach Jamie Soward farewelled his star playmaker Tyla King as she headed for the Paris Olympics to chase a dream.

Back-to-back gold medals was the lofty goal and that's exactly what King and her teammates delivered, defending the medal they won in Tokyo three years earlier.

At 30, the New Zealand Black Ferns superstar had ensured her illustrious rugby Sevens career that began as a teenager in 2012 would have a fairytale finish.

Job done. Next challenge.

Arriving back in the Illawarra just a few days later, King helped her teammates to a statement win over defending NRLW champions the Knights in Round 3, proving yet again what can be achieved through sheer dedication and self-belief.

And while she will no longer call herself a dual-code athlete, the Dragons playmaker knows deep down she will still never be just one thing.

A proud Maori, Chinese and European athlete, staying true to herself because there was no one else like her has been one of the driving motivators of King’s decorated career.  

“My mum is Chinese, her dad is full Chinese and her mum’s European and then my dad is Maori with European descent as well,” King told NRL.com as part of Telstra’s Hersday series.

“Growing up I had connection to our Maori side being of Ngapuhi, the iwi up in the far north but connection wise I probably grew up a lot more with the Chinese influence than I did with the Maori.

“And growing up in West Auckland, I pretty much played every single sport you could possibly think of.

I think I learned that from an early age to try and give everything a go and not specialise too early, whether it was an individual sport like running or a team sport in all different codes.

Tyla King

“I learned so much about myself, not only about how to control my body and the different things I could learn from the different games that I played, but about who I was as a person and how I interacted with others or how I was able to self-motivate.

“At the end of the day I learnt how important it is to do what makes you happy and last year I wasn't quite happy with where I was at and I decided to step up and make a change.

“Rugby league could have gone wrong for me, but it went right because I committed to it fully, and it was something that I fully and truly believed in.

“And so all the decisions I've made over the years are based on what makes me happy waking up in the morning and it's those learnings along the way that I believe build and create the character that you are and if you can live to be your true self, you can achieve anything.”

King, who was the 2023 World Rugby Sevens player of the year, made her NRLW debut after signing with the Dragons last season.

After watching the likes of Evania Pelite, Emma Tonegato, Niall Williams-Guthrie and Gayle Broughton make a successful switch from rugby union, King believed the NRLW was the fresh challenge she craved.

“Watching from afar I thought 'man, it would be so cool to go there and play NRLW one day'," she said.

"I looked into it a bit before last year but it just never aligned properly with my Sevens schedule,” she said.

“But at one point we had a really big gap in our Sevens program when the World Series finished and there was nothing else going on for Sevens at that stage.

“I was 12 years deep into my career and I knew I needed something new and exciting to refresh me.

“I slowly started losing that joy for the game a little bit in the Sevens space and I needed something new to boost that excitement and get that joy I once had back.

“We always had open communication with Sowie and he allowed me to still pursue rugby and the Olympics but still signed me on for this year and next year.

“To allow me to go and achieve a dream of mine - to go back-to-back at the Olympic Games - which we did and I’m so grateful for.”

While she may be narrowing her sporting focus to just rugby league, off the field King is expanding her horizons by studying a Masters of Health Science.

For New Zealand's most capped women's Sevens player, there’s been many doubters along the way. Plenty who said 'you can’t do it all', but the Kiwi superstar said the old adage ‘actions speak louder than words’ has been a major motivator.

“It’s something I've always lived by growing up and obviously being someone that was smaller in stature and not really the big, strong rugby type of player, I’ve always had doubters” she said.

“Even coaches wouldn't select me for rugby teams growing up because they thought I was too small and not strong enough to handle it.

“But for me, it was about believing in myself and knowing I was going to go out there and show people exactly what I can do and know that I had that self-belief and know that I'm good enough to be here.”