Jazmin’s golden photo ends a glittering Sevens year

Jazmin Felix-Hotham creates holes quickly for a living, playing for the Black Ferns Sevens. 
But even the vivacious 24-year-old didn’t like her chances of creating a hole to return to the mosh pit while partying at the Sziget Festival in Hungary.
Relaxing after New Zealand’s victory at the Paris Olympics, Felix-Hotham was in a good viewing spot when she had to take a trip to the bathroom, losing the optimal vantage point.
Mulling the lost opportunity, she decided to get resourceful, even brazen. 
“When I was in the bathroom I was thinking, ‘Man, this is going to be so hard. I think I have an idea’. I put my gold medal on and my two friends and I held hands. The crowd literally parted ways.”
The medal’s aura and its global power did the trick.
She ended up aboard the shoulders of friends, closer to the stage than originally intended. And it was from there that a photo of a euphoric Felix-Hotham with her Paris Olympic gold medal went viral.  
“It was a spur of the moment thing,” Felix-Hotham explained.
“My friend Fin Barnett, who’s a Touch Black, took it.
“I woke up and it had made it on the news,” Felix-Hotham laughed.
“All these messages about it; then Mum and Dad asking, ‘What the heck are you doing?’
“When I jumped down, I even heard this Kiwi say, ‘Oh my God, I’m neighbours with your coach’.”
“After that I’d pull it [the gold medal] out now and again.
The Hungary festival stop and a broader tour of the continent was a welcome stop after the Games ended.
“After the Olympics I had a six week European holiday planned but I was so sad when all the Black Ferns left.
“But in Hungary there is this tree called the New Zealand tree. It’s where all the Kiwis go between acts. So many people recognised me from the Olympics or had been in Paris.
“What’s special about New Zealand is if you talk to someone for five minutes; you’ll find a connection back home. It’s amazing how many people knew my parents and siblings from school, work, university, sport, everything.”
Felix-Hotham is not from an average family. Her younger brother Noah Hotham is an All Black, older brother Legin Hotham a Touch Black and dentist and Mum Dianne and Dad Nigel are enormously respected teachers in Hamilton.
Nigel has recently taken a position as a professional rugby coach for the USRC Tigers in Hong Kong. For 21 years Nigel and Greg Kirkham coached the extraordinarily successful Hamilton Boys’ High School 1st XV that won a record six National Top Four and four Sanix World Youth titles, producing 53 New Zealand Secondary Schools players. Additionally, Nigel won 13 National Secondary Schools touch and nine National Condor Sevens titles.  
He said: “When Jaz was a little girl, she had two dreams. One was to go to the Olympics; the other was to go to Paris. She never put the two together.
“The Olympic Sevens in Paris was packed every day, festive crowds bursting into songs, an amazing atmosphere. Jazmin has battled away to get regular minutes, but she’s started to settle, making strong contributions.”  
Jazmin: “Paris. I just loved it from books and the movies. The first time I drove past the Eiffel Tower, I teared up.”
And being an Olympian was the other love.
“When I was a little girl, I wanted to be an Olympic sprinter but I figured out pretty quickly I wasn’t fast enough.”
Rugby, via the Sevens, became her platform for reaching the Games.
“When I reflect on the Black Ferns campaign, I feel like it was a showcase of all the little things we’d refined in our game plan to get to the point where we felt untouchable.
“That’s not to say we wanted Sarah Hirini to throw an intercept or Portia Woodman-Wickliffe to get yellow carded in the final, but we’d trained all these adverse moments with each other back home so, when they happened, we knew what to do.”
Ingenuity was a particular hallmark of Felix-Hotham in a sometimes turbulent 2023/24 World Sevens for the Black Ferns.
When Alena Saili injured her ACL, Felix-Hotham jumped into the forwards. Jorja Miller was red carded and suspended for three games in Perth, so up stepped Felix-Hotham to cover prop. When Shiray Kaka succumbed to injury, Felix-Hotham settled in her preferred position of centre.
“The Olympics was like a reflection of our whole season. We had some very good moments and then, boom, something would happen like injuries or moments against us,” Felix-Hotham said.
“My goal this season is to establish myself as the best centre in the world. I’ve had to work hard to increase my minutes and being forced to cover other positions has been good for my overall game. I want to do the mahi again to create that winning feeling.”
Felix-Hotham has ruled out a switch to Fifteens or league in the immediate future.
And she’s even conceded her gold medal is losing some of its power with others.
“I was wearing it around the house the other day so Mum could see it when she got home. The first thing she asked was, ‘Have you cleared the dishwasher’.”