Faith Nathan

Faith Nathan played several different 'oval’ ball sports before settling into the Australia sevens side. Born in Manly, Faith grew up in Berkley Vale where she began her career playing touch football, where her now acclaimed playmaking skills were first developed.

She played for the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in touch football, winning the NSW Touch Association Junior Female Player of the Year during the 2017-18 Season, before going on to represent the Parramatta Eels in 2019.

After initially being put off by the physicality of contact sport, Faith took up playing for the Cronulla Sharks U18s in the Tarsha Gale Cup in 2018.

Faith dominated the competition, leading the Sharks to the grand final where they played the Newcastle Knights. Her form throughout the season carried on to the grand final, where Faith scored three tries in a standout performance, leading the Sharks to a 32-22 win. Little did she know she was also playing with a future Australian Rugby Sevens Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic teammate in Sariah Paki.

A year later Faith debuted for Australia in Rugby Sevens at the 2019 Dubai Sevens. This made Faith the second person in her family to play for their country in the sport, after her uncle Drew represented the Cook Islands at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Faith impressed in her debut tournament as Australia reached the semi-finals undefeated and largely untested. Unfortunately, the side struggled against Canada, going down 26-12. She scored her third try of the tournament in the third-place playoff against the USA as her side was defeated, finishing in fourth place.

With the 2020 Olympics delayed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Faith was forced to wait for the opportunity to represent Australia at the Olympic Games. In 2021, she played in a series of warm up games against the black ferns, with her performances seeing her rewarded with a place in the squad for the Tokyo Games.

Faith was once again a standout for Australia, scoring four tries in her first Olympics, as Australia finished the competition in fifth place.

In 2022, Faith retained her place in Australia’s team for the 2022 Birmingham Games. She scored four tries in the tournament, two of which came in the gold medal match as Australia defeated Fiji 22-12.

In early 2024 Faith was named in the tournament dream team in back-to-back tournaments at Hong Kong and Singapore respectively.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics Faith and the team were a perfect three wins from three games in the pool stage. They took care of Ireland in the quarter-finals 40-7 before a strong Canadian team halted Australia's run in the semi-finals, inflicting a 21-12 loss.

In a tense fight for a bronze medal against the USA, the Americans scored a converted try after time expired for a 14-12 score to relegate the Aussies to fourth place.