Watch New Zealand’s Rugby Team Perform a Traditional Haka After Their Olympic Gold Medal Win
The team's haka is called "Ko Uhia Mai" or "Let It Be Known."
On July 31st, the New Zealand women’s rugby team won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, and after they defeated France, the celebrated in a truly beautiful way. The team performed a haka, or a traditional Maori dance that’s usually accompanied by chanting, and it was so beautiful to see the team come together to honor tradition.
The team’s haka is called Ko Uhia Mai or Let It Be Known. According to NBC, New Zealand’s Team, the Black Ferns, made the tradition even more famous when they started incorporating it into their games.
It was an emotional moment for the Black Ferns, because at their last Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, they lost to Australia—something that definitely couldn’t have been easy for them. But this time around, they really changed the game (literally), making their haka all the more special.
As team captain Sarah Hines told reporters, that moment of celebration was “pure joy” for her and her teammates.
“I just think about everything that we’ve had to do to get to this moment. I thought about all the people back home who have helped us, also the players who trained hard but missed out on getting here,” she said. “To win this is pretty crazy and it’s something where you look at your teammates and think, ‘We finally did it. We’ve done it for New Zealand’.”
The team also shared plenty of celebratory photos on Instagram, and their happiness jumps off of their feed. Their haka is clearly just scratching the surface of their excitement!
It sounds like this was a huge win for the Black Ferns—and an awesome moment they got to share with the rest of the world.