Jen Kish

Jennifer "Jen" Kish (born July 7, 1988) is a Canadian former rugby union player.[1] She was a member of Canada's women's sevens team that were runners-up at the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens in Russia.[2] Kish captained the sevens squad from 2012-2016 until she left the centralized program and while still player, she was replaced by Ghislaine Landry.[3] She is known for her aerial skills and defence (and her ink[1]). Kish was awarded the Most Influential Athlete of the CAAWS Most Influential Women List of 2016.[4]

Jen Kish
Date of birth (1988-07-07) July 7, 1988
Place of birthOttawa, Ontario
Height172 cm (5 ft 8 in)
Weight72 kg (159 lb)
SchoolW. P. Wagner High School
Rugby union career
Position(s) Loose forward (7s), Flanker/No. 8 (15s)
Amateur team(s)
Years Team Apps (Points)
– Edmonton Rockers/AB ()
Provincial / State sides
Years Team Apps (Points)
2003-2010 Alberta U-17 - (-)
Alberta U-19 - (-)
Senior Alberta - (-)
International career
Years Team Apps (Points)
2005-2013? Canada 33
National sevens team(s)
Years Team Comps
2011–2018 Canada
Medal record
Women's rugby sevens
Representing  Canada
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place2016 Rio de JaneiroTeam competition
Pan American Games
Gold medal – first place2015 TorontoTeam competition
World Cup 7s
Silver medal – second place2013 RussiaTeam competition

Rugby 15s

Kish's dream of being an elite athlete started at an early age and in Grade 2, she put down "professional athlete" as her future profession[5] Kish started rugby in Grade 10 at W. P. Wagner High School in Edmonton because her football coach was a rugby player and suggested she should try the sport.[6]

Kish typically played flanker and occasionally 8-man.[5] Playing for the province of Alberta at 16, her skills were recognized and she joined the U-19 Team Canada roster.[1] Six months later, at 17, before joining the senior women's team, Kish tattooed the Rugby Canada logo on her right calf. She would go on to play in three Nations Cups and the 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup.

Rugby 7s

Kish tried out for the sevens team in 2007, but she thought the sport was hard because it involved a lot of sprinting and differed too much from 15s.[7] After the 2010 World Cup, John Tait invited Kish to a sevens camp. In 2013, Kish captained Canada to silver at the 2013 Women's Rugby World Cup.[8] Her stellar performance was awarded when she was named the 2013 Sevens Player of the Year, for the second year in a row.

Kish won a gold medal at the 2015 Pan American Games as a member of the Canadian women's rugby sevens team.[1][9]

In 2016, she was named to Canada's first ever women's rugby sevens Olympic team, which won the bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.[10]

Her favourite pre-match tune is "Watch Me Rise" by Mikky Ekko.[6] Her pregame rituals consist of eating mustard before every game and writing what's important to her on her wrists, particularly "#ruckcancer", in honour of her father Steve, a cancer survivor.[8]

Kish announced her retirement on April 30, 2018, due to injuries that forced her to miss the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia and recent Canadian appearances on the Sevens world circuit.[8] Upon the end of her sevens career, Kish played in 134 matches and scored 170 points (34 tries).[11]

In 2019, Kish was on the World Rugby Men's Sevens Player of the Year award and the World Rugby Women's Sevens Player of the Year award voting panels.[12]

Personal life

Kish is openly lesbian.[13] During May 2018, Kish was part of a group of four female athletes, including Cassie Campbell, Fran Rider and Kerrin Lee-Gartner to publicly pledge their brain to a Canadian research centre. The posthumous donation shall be made to Toronto Western Hospital's Canadian Concussion Centre to further research on the effect of trauma on women's brains.[14]

Kish married two-spirit Mohawk (Six Nations of The Grand River) musician Shawnee in 2021. They were married in Edmonton, Alberta by former Premier Rachel Notley.[15]

References
  1. "Jennifer Kish". Olympic.ca. Canadian Olympic Committee. Archived from the original on 2016-07-21. Retrieved July 16, 2016.
  2. "Squad Lists With RWC Totals" (PDF). rwcsevens.com. 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 19, 2013. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  3. "Ghislaine Landry Replaces Jen Kish as Canada Rugby 7s Captain". CBC. February 1, 2017. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2021.
  4. "KISH NAMED CAAWS MOST INFLUENTIAL ATHLETE". Rugby Canada. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
  5. "Pan Am Games: Canadian Rugby Sevens Captain Wears Her Heart on Her sleeve". Canada.com. July 3, 2015. Archived from the original on February 3, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2021.
  6. "20 Questions with Jen Kish". Canada Women's Sevens. Archived from the original on February 3, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2021.
  7. Network, Postmedia (May 29, 2016). "Jen Kish: A Q-and-A with the Olympic Rugby Sevens Star". National Post. Retrieved April 4, 2021.
  8. Blum, Benjamin (April 30, 2018). "Canadian rugby 7s icon Jen Kish retires". CBC Sports. Archived from the original on 2018-05-01. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  9. "Jen Kish". Toronto2015.org. 2015 Pan American Games. Archived from the original on May 10, 2017. Retrieved July 16, 2016.
  10. MacDonnell, Beth (July 8, 2016). "Historic first Canadian women selected for Olympic rugby at Rio 2016". Olympic.ca. Canadian Olympic Committee. Archived from the original on 2016-07-09. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  11. Canadian Press (2018-04-30). "Kish calls it quits after sacrificing her body for Canada". Archived from the original on 2018-10-17. Retrieved 2018-10-17.
  12. worldrugby.org. "World Rugby Awards Voting Panel". www.world.rugby. Retrieved 2019-09-20.
  13. Castano, Christine (August 19, 2016). "These LGBT Athletes Made History at the Rio Olympics". Paste. Retrieved December 1, 2019.
  14. Morgan Campbell (10 May 2018). "Four high-profile Canadians to donate their brains for research into concussion effects in women". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2018-08-03. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
  15. Adam Lachacz (May 16, 2021). "Edmonton Olympian and musician married by Rachel Notley". CTV News Edmonton.
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