Emma Tonegato

Fast Facts

Sport: Rugby Sevens
Event: Women's
Olympic History: Rio 2016 (Gold), Tokyo 2020
Highlights: Gold at Rio 2016, 2015-16 World Series Dream Team and Champion
Year Born: 1995
State Born: NSW

About Emma

Emma Tonegato grew up playing touch football, transferred to rugby league and then found a home in Rugby Sevens for the 2013-14 World Series.

She debuted for the Australian Sevens in Dubai for the opening leg of the World Rugby Series in November 2013, where Australia beat New Zealand in the final.

Emma had a fantastic season leading into her debut Olympics, with the outside back’s tryscoring prowess rewarded with selection in the World Series Dream Team.

The dual-Olympian was also part of the triumphant Australian team at the Atlanta leg of the World Sevens Series in April 2016, where the Aussies again beat the Kiwis to gold and she was named Player of the Tournament.

Emma made history in Rio as part of the gold-medal winning women’s rugby sevens team in Rio. She scored the opening try of the match as Australia built a 19-point lead, winning 24-17 and claiming the first rugby sevens Olympic gold medal. Her seven tries for the Rio tournament were only second-best behind Portia Woddman (NZL) with 10.

The victory capped off a massive 2016 for the team, who also became the first Australian side to win the World Series after they won three of the five events on the circuit. Emma crossed the stripe 16 times throughout the series to finish the season as the sixth highest tryscorer.

Following her debut Olympics, Emma was selected for the Sydney leg of the 2017-18 World Series where she scored an incredible 26 tries.

As part of the 2017 Australia Day honours Emma received a Medal of the Order of Australia for service to sport as a gold medallist at the Rio Olympics.

At the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Emma scored a try in each pool game win, before scoring a hat-trick in the 33-7 semi-final win over Canada. In the final, the Aussies claimed silver with New Zealand winning gold.

Emma became a two-time Olympian at Tokyo 2020, leading the Australian team to defend their Gold medal result at the previous iteration of the games. Tonegato would score five tries across the tournament against Japan and ROC. 

After escaping the group stages of the tournament they were defeated and subsequently knocked out of medal contention by Fiji 14-12 in the quarter-finals. The Aussies would end their tournament on a high, defeating the United States 17-7 in the fifth-place playoff.