Earlier this week, the U.S. women's rugby sevens team earned their first Olympic medal in history, and it marks a positive turn for the women's sport that's been overlooked for decades. I mean, there's no other way to put it," says Phaidra Knight, a former U.S. women's rugby sevens team player and World Rugby Hall of Fame inductee. "It will have incredible and substantial implications for the future of not only women's rugby, but rugby in America." When Knight became a player on the U.S. National Rugby union team, which is different from the sevens team, in 1999, the program didn't receive funding, she says. Many professional rugby players join the U.S. National union teams prior to joining a sevens team; four national teams are under USA Rugby.

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Persons: Phaidra Knight, Sunny Choi, ’, Michele Kang, Knight Organizations: rugby, World Rugby Hall of Fame, U.S . National Rugby union, U.S . National, USA Rugby, U.S Locations: U.S, America, Paris